


out of a million

by Lake (beyond_belief)



Series: let us be one (Venom! in a Jar!) [1]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Sex, Explicit Consent, Fluff, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Other, Road Trips, Venom in a Jar, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:01:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 44,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28173612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyond_belief/pseuds/Lake
Summary: The AU where Venom is goo in a jar that Eddie steals from the Life Foundation lab and takes on a road trip (and eventually they bond, fall in love, and defeat Riot!Drake).
Relationships: Eddie Brock & Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote
Series: let us be one (Venom! in a Jar!) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2166351
Comments: 112
Kudos: 259





	1. Eddie - Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't what I planned on doing for NaNoWriMo but it's what happened (whoops?). Also, thank-yous/apologies to all my favorite Venom authors (there are a lot of you ♥) because I basically stole a whole lot of things I liked from several dozen fics and tossed them in a blender.
> 
> Lots of love and thank-yous to the folks who read along as I posted it WIP and left comments - very much appreciated!!

The Life Foundation laboratory is almost terrifyingly overwhelming, and Eddie's brain is only letting him input one horrible thing at a time. Whirling red lights that invoke an almost immediate headache. Maria's body, cold and for some reason, only partially covered in a sheet. The bile threatening to rise in his throat. Another body; someone he doesn't recognize. A strange fog in the air. 

And on a counter, a jar with a black goo in it. 

Eddie takes pictures without thinking about what he's photographing. Maria's distorted face - _don't think about it, Eddie, just take a few pictures and move on to the next thing_ \- bringing a heavy cold weight to his stomach. A stack of empty body bags in the corner of the lab. The jar with the black stuff.

It moves slightly as he watches. As he gets closer to get a better shot, two white spots appear. Like eyes. "What the fuck," Eddie breathes. 

Something tells him to touch the jar. Hand shaking, he does.

_Help us! Help, please. Let us out of here. Get us out of here. Eddie? You are Eddie! They are hurting us here, they hurt Maria. We think she was your friend. Help us get out? Help us, please. Please!_

Eddie stumbles back. Another alarm goes off somewhere. He stares at the jar, and the eyes stare back at him. It said _please_.

He grabs the jar and runs.

*

_Thankyouthankyouthankyou,_ the goo in the the jar seems to be saying, as Eddie zips it up inside his hoodie so he can ride this random bus he caught hopefully somewhere close to his apartment. Taking it with him is insane on so many levels, the least of which is Carlton Drake's crazy. The goo is probably some Life Foundation experiment. There are probably armed guards out looking for it right now.

 _Not an experiment,_ Eddie hears in his head.

"Then what are you," he mumbles under his breath. He curls a little more towards the window, careful of the jar even though he knows he should be scared of whatever it is, he should leave it at the next stop, he should forget this night even happened.

He can't forget. Every time he closes his eyes for longer than a blink he sees the flashing red lights. Sees Maria's cold face.

 _Men stole us from our ship,_ the voice in his head. The voice from the jar. _Brought us back on their spaceship. Put us in this…_ There's a pause, almost like the thing in the jar is looking for the right word. _Containment._

The bus goes over a bump. Eddie clutches the jar despite himself. He takes a breath. "Came back on the spaceship... are you an alien?" he whispers furiously.

The goo takes a whole to respond. _I am Venom. We are Klyntar._

Eddie has to transfer to another bus, but it's not as out of his way as it could have been. He gets off his local route a stop shy of where he normally would, and walks the long way around to his apartment building, keeping an eye out as he goes. "Am I making a horrible mistake bringing you back to my apartment?" he asks. "Wait, why am I even asking? Of course this a horrible fucking mistake."

 _They were hurting us in that laboratory._ The goo moves in the jar, strong enough that Eddie feels the push. _You saved us._

*

Eddie sets the jar on the table. The goo inside ripples. He steps back, watching it, and the eyes form again. A bump rises from the mass and presses against the inside of the glass. It's like the thing is reaching up to touch the glass for some reason.

This is crazy. "What do I even do with you? Take you somewhere? Hide you? Fuck, Drake's goons are going to figure out it's me on their fucking security tapes, or catch Dr. Skirth and she's gonna confess, and then they're gonna come after me." Eddie scrubs his hands over his eyes, and when he opens them again, there are two protrusions resting against the glass. 

"Pretty sure there's no like, wildlife rehab for alien slime," he mutters, mostly to himself. The goo ripples wildly like it's heard him. "Oh, fuck it."

The jar itself is about the size of the jumbo peanut butters, and the lid is a screwtop but with a sort of latch on the top. Probably so the creature doesn't unscrew the lid from the inside and escape. He reaches out to touch his hand to the glass. Immediately, the voice in his head returns. _Eddie. Let us out._

"I'm not letting you out of there, what the fuck."

The eyes seem to follow his face. _If you will not let us out, you will need to run, hide. Men from the laboratory will no doubt be coming here. There is one who is worse than the others._

Dread starts to pool in Eddie's chest again. "Taking you from that lab was a bad fucking idea."

_No! They would have killed us! Like they killed your friend._

"How do _you_ know she was my friend?"

The goo wobbles back and forth against the sides of the jar for a moment, protrusions still reaching towards Eddie. _We saw in her mind, when we were joined. That is why the astronauts stole us. We join… with hosts. Make stronger. Cannot live very long on most planets without a host._

Eddie blinks at it. He should run, or hide, or throw the jar out the window - anything, if there are really Life Foundation goons coming for him. "How long can you live in this container? Before you die without a host, I mean?"

_With sustenance… approximately three more of your Earth weeks. Maybe longer, if food is good and we have enough. Your atmosphere is close enough to our own that we will not die right away, but we're not meant to be without a host for long periods of time._

"Okay, you're staying in there for now, then. I guess we better make ourselves scarce if there are shitbags on the way. Uh… I got a backpack around here somewhere, I guess you can ride in that."

A feeling of gratitude flows from the creature. 

"Don't thank me yet," Eddie mutters.

He finds the backpack, wraps the jar in a towel for a bumper, and zips it up inside. When he puts the backpack on, he can hear the goo talking to him even through the layers. _They're coming!_

"You said already, man, but there's only one door out of this place." Eddie makes sure he has his phone, wallet, and keys. And a ballcap. He sticks a bottle of water in one of the elastic bottle-holders on the side of the backpack, with the vague intention of making this look more legitimate or something. "Okay, we're going."

No one passes him going down the back stairs of the building. Outside, he glances around, and spots three guys that look like they could be Drake's goons getting out of a double-parked black SUV. _Go around the building, Eddie! In the alley, hide,_ the goo shouts in his head.

Being in the alley allows him to see his own lit-up window. Eddie tucks himself against the brick wall as much as possible, watching from behind a car. His heart is pounding in his chest. The goo must be pushing itself back and forth against the sides of the jar; he feels it move inside the backpack. _Eddieeddieeddie._

"Shh," he breathes. Upstairs, the shadows in his apartment change. The goons are inside. "Fuck. Seriously, what am I going to do with you?"

 _Don't give me to them!_ There's dim pulse of fear, different from Eddie's own. 

"I won't, okay? But we can't hide out here all night." The shadows change again, Eddie sees something that might be his furniture being overturned. As though he and the goo are hiding under a chair. 

It's dark in this alley, which makes it easier for him to hide, and at least it's not freezing. But Eddie really doesn't want to crouch next to garbage cans for several hours. _It will not be several hours,_ the goo insists. _Your dwelling is not so large that it will take that long to search._

There's a sound like glass shattering and Eddie winces. "I really, really hope that wasn't something in my place, or you're replacing whatever it is," he says. Then he laughs to himself, an almost hysterical feeling rising in his throat. What the fuck is he doing, threat-bargaining with some slime in a jar?

_We're not slime!_

"What the hell, can you hear everything I think?"

_Only when it is loud. You are agitated._

"Of course I'm fucking agitated, there's dudes destroying my apartment!" He sees the shadows in his window move again, then nothing. A minute later and there's a screech of tires. "That was probably them, can I go back in now?"

_We should wait another minute to be sure._

"What _are_ you, anyway," Eddie mumbles, more to himself than to the goo in the jar. "Alien parasite… I guess I can see how that would be worth millions to an asshole like Drake."

The goo hisses at mention of Drake's name. _We are not a parasite!_

"You said you need a human host, how are you not a parasite?"

He feels it bang against the jar again. _A parasite operates only for themselves. I am a symbiote. My host and I complement one another. We improve each other. My host provides us a body, a way to live in an incompatible environment. We provide strength and protection._

"From what? This isn't the jungle, there ain't predators after me."

_You have no enemies?_

Eddie frowns. "Suppose I just made an enemy of Carlton Drake, stealing his property and all."

The jar rattles harder than he's felt it so far. _We are NOT the property of ANYONE!_

"Whoa, whoa, calm down," Eddie says, hand over his chest where his heart is beating wildly all of a sudden. "I just meant, like, I am definitely in trouble, right?" 

_They did not find us in your apartment. Do not know if they will return._

Yeah, this probably isn't good at all. Slowly, he eases out of the alley. The dark SUV is gone.

 _We are hungry. You will feed us, Eddie._

"You're really demanding, for being just some slime in a jar," Eddie shoots back, and stumbles as the goo pushes hard against the jar, like they're shoving him. "Hey! If you want dinner, relax."

A very distinctly grumbling feeling comes from it. _We do not relax._

"Well, you better learn." He doesn't see anyone who looks out of place on the street, so he crosses it to the small Chinese takeout place on the opposite corner. "What will you eat? What do you like?"

_Do not... know._

Eddie pauses briefly with one hand on the door handle. "What did they feed you at the lab?"

 _Do not… know. Was like… garbage._

Eddie shudders and reaches back to awkwardly pat the backpack. Then he gets in line, looking up at the menu. He'll just... get the small size of a bunch of stuff and drop pieces in the jar for the goo to try. The very thought is absurd, and Eddie covers his mouth with his hand for a second so he doesn't laugh at the insanity of it. Feeding the stolen slime. 

_HUNGRY!_

"I'm getting it, chill," Eddie whispers under his breath. He's next up. 

The teenage boy taking orders looks bored. Eddie gets one dish with each kind of meat, things he likes well enough himself so that leftovers won't go to waste, and a beef lo-mein because it's his favorite. There's a buzzy, anticipatory feeling in his stomach. This is no less crazy than it was five, ten, or fifteen minutes ago.

 _Please, Eddie,_ the goo says. 

After his order is handed over, Eddie walks the long way back around the block to his building. Nothing seems out of the ordinary and he doesn't see any vehicles that look either too hulking for the neighborhood, or too sleek for the neighborhood. "I think we're okay," he tells the goo. "Gonna go up and see how much damage those fuckers did."

 _pleaseeddie,_ they mumble, one word, and much quieter. Maybe they really do need to eat soon. 

His door is ajar, and the lock looks broken. He'll have to jam a chair up under the knob for the night, or push the table up against it. There's no one in the apartment, but his couch is tipped over and all the cupboards and drawers are open. A water glass is smashed on the counter and in the sink. 

"What the fuck did they have to break shit for," Eddie mutters, setting the takeout bag on the table. He keeps the backpack on for now, and wedges a kitchen chair up under the busted doorknob before he rights the couch. Then he checks the bathroom. The curtain is ripped down and his toiletries are all over the floor, but nothing looks broken. No glass or anything crunches under his boots. "At least my toilet seat is in one piece."

 _pleaseeddie,_ the goo sighs again. 

"Sorry, sorry. Food, right. Just had to make sure the place was empty, you know?" He unpacks the containers into a row on the table, then takes the jar out of the backpack - the towel he leaves, just in case he has to carry the goo anywhere else. "How, uh -"

_letmeout_

"I don't think so," Eddie replies firmly. He gets a fork from the drawer. "I'm gonna open the jar, and I'm gonna drop a piece in, and you can see if you like it."

The goo swirls in what he figures is acceptance. 

He opens the takeout containers before he opens the latch on the jar. The goo swirls a little again as he unscrews the lid part, and doesn't stretch up or reach up or anything as he carefully lifts off the lid. He looks down at it. Two white eyes appear again, slightly larger than before, and blink back at him. "Whoa, what the fuck!"

_food!_

Eddie drops in a piece of chicken from the moo goo gai pan; it seemed a bland enough choice for alien slime. It disappears into the blackness. He waits a few seconds to see if the goo will spit it back out or something, but they just blink up at him again. "Okay, I guess that's a yes. It's not like, too hot or anything?"

 _moreeddie,_ it says, when he touches the jar.

The pork and beef also disappear into the goo without complaint. Eddie drops a shrimp in, and the goo seems to ooze around it for a second before accepting it as well. Then it manifests the same blobby protrusions as earlier, and reaches up. 

"Nope, nope, nope," Eddie chants, fear spiking in his chest, and holds the lid on with his hand. The goo stops reaching up when he does. 

_What was that you just fed us?_

"Shrimp in, um - what was it - brown sauce, I guess."

 _More shrimp, Eddie!_ It swirls around, but doesn't reach upwards again. 

Eddie feeds them the rest of the shrimp a piece at a time, taking bites of his own lo mein in between. "Is that enough for now?" he asks, when the creature's eaten almost all of it. "Do you want to try the other things again?"

_We are... pleased for now. Hungry again later._

He puts the lid back on the jar and fastens the clamp. _Why must we stay in this container?_ it asks as he does. 

"Because I still don't know what you really are," Eddie answers it honestly. " _And_ there's still glass in the kitchen. Dangerous."

The small white eyes reappear, and stare at him for a long moment. Then the goo pushes against the side of the jar, hard enough to knock it over. Eddie jumps, then catches it before it can roll to the edge of the table, and with his hands on the glass again he can hear the _letmeout letmeout Eddie letmeout letUSOUT_.

He hurries to stuff the jar in the backpack and zip it up. It can't throw itself from any heights in there, and he doesn't have to see it, or want to know what it's saying. 

Then he puts away the leftovers, and starts cleaning up the mess of his apartment.

*

An hour later, the broken glass is both swept and vacuumed up, and Eddie figures since he's wiping down the counters for any last speck of glass, he might as well actually clean the kitchen. It's been a while. And it's a good distraction from the jar wrapped up in his backpack. The goo is still protesting being shut away; it's knocked the backpack over and managed to move it a few inches across the floor. Eddie picks it up and moves it into the bedroom area while he sweeps the rest of the loft. He hears the backpack tip over again with a soft thunk, and when he looks again after straightening up the bathroom, the goo has moved it almost all the way around the bookcase divider.

He leaves it while saving the pictures of the lab from his phone onto his laptop, leaves it while sending some of the pictures to the secure dropbox he shares with a couple old contacts in New York - Robby might want to run with this, while Eddie lays low until he can be sure Drake's goons won't be back - and leaves it while he texts Dr. Skirth, hoping she's all right. By the time he's brushing his teeth, the backpack is almost to the sofa. 

Eddie spits, rinses, bangs the excess water off his toothbrush, and then picks up the backpack. "If I take you out of here, will you chill?" he asks.

 _It is DARK in here let us OUT,_ the goo shouts back. 

"You're an alien, what the fuck do you care about the dark?" Eddie retorts, but he frees the jar from the wadded-up towel. The goo swirls - angrily, he thinks - and manifests the small eyes to glare up at him. 

_Require liquid,_ it says.

The Chinese food was pretty salty. Eddie could do with a glass of water himself. "You won't try to jump out or something if I open your container?"

Another angry swirl. _no..._ It sounds almost sullen.

Eddie fills a glass for himself, and a measuring cup with a spout for the slime. "Do I just… pour some onto you?" he asks, opening the jar. 

The goo blinks up at him and opens a small mouth. With teeth. Eddie doesn't jump, but it's a near thing. He splashes some of the water onto the goo and hurries to hold the lid back in place. "Good? More?"

_More!_

Eddie repeats the water-splashing three more times before the goo is satisfied. When the lid is secure again, he looks closer at the blob. It looks like it's taking up more of the container than before. "What did you… are you bigger?"

He puts a hand on the jar so he can hear their reply. _Yes. You fed me enough. They were starving us in the lab… we are sorry we hurt your friend Maria for food, but we were so hungry. We didn't know._

The eyes blink slowly at him. 

"What do you mean?"

 _We did not know,_ they repeat. _Needed nutrients._

It dawns on Eddie, coldly, what the goo means. "You… killed her?"

They slosh back and forth slowly and, Eddie thinks, sadly. _We have never had a host of your species before. We were starving and needed to eat. My kind…_

They draw back from the side of the jar, away from Eddie, words fading out. "Your kind what?" Eddie demands. He presses his palm to the glass insistently, trying to indicate to the blob that they - it - they should answer him.

_We understand now that it was wrong to kill her. My kind travels through space. Looking for hosts, to strip planets. When the host expires, we find another._

"So what, you came here to…" Eddie stops, frowns. "Conquer Earth?"

The goo gives another sad slosh. _Our spaceship crashed on an asteroid. The humans found us, imprisoned us. Brought us to Earth and put us in that laboratory._

"I'm confused about this 'we' thing. Do you mean just you, singular, or are there more containers of alien slime back at the Life Foundation?"

_We do not know. If others survived, they were not kept where we could see them._

Okay, Eddie can parse that one. 

_We are sorry about Maria,_ they stress. _We saw she was your friend. That is how we knew you. How we knew you are kind._

"Yeah, kind to other humans, but you're - you're an alien, dude." Eddie shakes his head, but it's more at himself than at the goo. "What the fuck am I going to do with you?"

*

What he does is barricade the front door even more, put the jar in the backpack despite the slime's protests and pleas, and get ready for bed. He does bring the backpack close to the bed - just in case, and also so the goo won't move it around all night. "I still don't know what to do with you, but I'm not figuring it out tonight, so you can stay here for now. I'm going to sleep. Don't bother me."

A single soft thump, then no more. 

"Yeah, good talk." He turns out the light. "Uh - goodnight."

That's the first day.


	2. Eddie - Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie and the goo: Day 2!

In the morning, the backpack has moved a little bit, but only a few feet closer to the bed and not like, across the entire apartment. Eddie looks at it for a moment, then takes the jar out. 

The goo swirls sort of anxiously for a moment, or at least it looks anxious to him. _Eddie! Eddieletusout, let us out!_

"Uh, no. Not now." He sets it back in the towel buffer, but leaves the front of the backpack open so that the goo can look around if they want to. "I'm going to brush my teeth and shower and stuff. Behave."

They look sullen. Eddie checks his phone, hoping Dr. Skirth has gotten back to him, but there's nothing. He texts her again, says he'll try calling later if he doesn't hear from her, then goes into the bathroom to do his morning routine.

He's almost done brushing his teeth in the steamy bathroom with a towel around his waist when there's a clunk from the other room. "What are you doing, slime?" he yells, garbled around a mouthful of toothpaste. Then he spits it out, and goes to see what's going on, one hand holding the towel on securely.

The goo has tipped the jar free of the towel cradle, and is rolling it across the floor towards where Eddie is. "Seriously, I can't brush my teeth?" he grumbles, and picks it up. 

The goo presses the hand-like protrusions against the glass. _We are hungry._

"I said I'd be back!"

The eyes appear. _Hungry!_

"Jesus, calm down. Let me put pants on." He sets the jar in the towel buffer once more. "Just - chill, for like two minutes."

They ripple, but don't knock their jar free again while Eddie gets dressed. Once he's decent - and once he's rinsed all the toothpaste foam down the drain, and started a pot of coffee - he takes the jar and sets it on the table. "It's the China House leftovers, so don't complain."

 _Hungry!_ they shout while he's still touching the jar. He wonders if they're saying anything when he's not touching the glass.

The slime reaches upward for the food, but doesn't stretch all the way up, as though they understand that Eddie is prepared to slam the lid back onto the jar. He drops in what's left of the pork, then the last few pieces of the chicken. He tries a pea pod, and the goo spits it all the way up past the rim of the jar. It lands on the table, half-chewed. 

"Okay, no pea pods," Eddie mutters. He puts his hand on the side of the jar.

_We don't like that thing._

"What about the other vegetables? Carrots? Broccoli? Water chestnuts?"

They pulse slightly. _Will try._

They eat the carrot and the water chestnut. The broccoli gets spit out so high that Eddie watches in amazement as it sails several feet past the edge of the table and lands on the floor with a splat. When he looks back at the goo, they've slithered out of the jar and are now halfway down the outside of it. 

"Oh, shit - no, no, no - fuck," Eddie breathes, making an aborted move towards the blob, then drawing back, terrified and not sure if he wants to touch it. "Get back in the jar!"

A thin tendril extends and touches his arm, and he jumps. _No, Eddie. We will not go back in there._

"Please?"

The goo doesn't move, sitting as a black lump of slime on the table, small eyes looking at him. "Please?" Eddie tries again. His heart is thumping. "I don't know what you are and what you want or what you'll do to me."

The tendril touches his arm again. _We told you. I am Venom. We seek a host._

"Yeah, well, I don't want to be it, so get back in the damn jar!"

_Don't want to hurt you, Eddie! Won't hurt you!_

"You said you hurt my friend," Eddie replies coldly, and would swear the goo shrinks a little. He turns the jar so that the mouth is pointed towards their mass. "I don't. Trust you. Go back in the container. Now!"

They quiver for a moment, staring at him. Then they crawl slowly and sadly into the jar. Heart still pounding wildly in his chest, Eddie screws the lid back on.

*

He tucks the jar back into the towel nest, but brings the backpack to his desk so the slime can see him while he works and hopefully not throw some sort of alien tantrum. He's sold a few articles to the Globe, and is hoping they'll make it official and hire him on full-time, but in the meantime he has a couple freelance pieces to finish up. Mostly fluff travel pieces about the Bay area, but the websites he's writing them for pay a decent amount per word. It's at least enough that he can scrape together rent, food, and gas and insurance for the motorcycle, since he needs it to get some of the places he's been writing about.

Three hundred words to the minimum he needs to make, he slides his foot over to touch the backpack. The goo, which has been watching him with slitted eyes, immediately reaches to place a protrusion against the glass. _Eddie, Eddie! What are you doing?_

"Working."

_What does that mean?_

"It means… I have to pay money to live here, so I make money by writing articles for newspapers and magazines," Eddie explains, not sure that the goo will understand any of it. 

_Money is what humans use for transactions, we know this._

Eddie looks down at the jar. The goo blinks up at him, then Eddie sees them stick a long pink tongue out briefly. "How does alien slime know anything?"

 _We are not slime!_ The goo swirls - angrily, he thinks. 

Eddie looks at his laptop screen, then back at the jar. "I should probably make sure I have some of these details right, and maybe it's not a bad idea if we're not here for a while, in case those Life Foundation assholes come back. You want to go for a ride?"

_What does that mean?_

"I wear your backpack and drive my motorcycle."

_We would accept this._

That settles it for Eddie. He locks up his laptop, in case the goons come back and want to destroy more stuff, then puts on his boots and his leather jacket. The goo watches the whole time. When he wraps them back up in the towel, they don't protest. He tucks an extra sweatshirt around their jar for more padding, then zips up the backpack and puts it on. "Can you still talk to me through all that?" he asks.

_Yes. As long as all the… layers are touching._

"Cool, I guess." Eddie zips the apartment key and a tiny note-taking set into one jacket pocket, his phone into another, then grabs his helmet. "Let's hit it."

He doesn't see any out of place SUVs today, and no one looks to be staking out his building. He unchains his bike and gets on. _What is this machine?_ the goo asks, bumping their jar against his back, but lightly.

"It's a motorcycle. You ride it from one place to another, like the bus we got on when I broke you out."

_Transportation._

"Transportation, yeah." Eddie settles the helmet on his head, then rolls the bike slowly out of the alley, careful so he doesn't run anyone over that's passing on the sidewalk. "Okay, we're going now."

The goo doesn't say anything more as Eddie weaves down the streets, heading for the bridge. He probably doesn't need to actually go out to Muir to finish this piece, but getting out of his apartment seems like a good idea, and it's a nice drive. It's been a long time since he last made it.

*

It's a weekday and still early, so Eddie makes a stop to hit the head and get something to eat before he hikes out. The coffeeshop he's fond of in Marin City has outdoor seating, so he puts the backpack in one chair and unzips it enough that the goo can see out if it tries, but no one glancing at it would really be able to tell there was a jar of slime inside.

He sees the eyes flash a few times, but he's the only person paying attention. When he's finished the bagel and coffee, he buys two bottles of water for the hike, and tucks them into the side pockets. "Ready to head out?" he murmurs.

_EddieeddieEDDIE we could not talk to you!!!_

"Sorry!" He slides the backpack on again. "We'll go for a hike, and you can talk all you want, okay?"

 _fine,_ they mutter, sounding sulky. 

At the park, he pays the entrance fee and heads for the Visitor Center to ask his questions. They're all pretty routine things he's sure the park staff have answered a million times before now. Eddie takes dutiful notes as the goo continues to mutter about being closed up in the backpack. "Do people ever go missing in the woods?" he asks the guy currently manning the information desk.

"It's rare, but it happens," the guy replies. "We keep the trails of the Monument boardwalked, but once you get onto the longer trails in the State park sometimes people wander off, thinking they can find their own way back, and the rangers have go to looking for them. Some of those canyon trails are steep, or people catch their feet in a tree root that's sticking up, so there's a couple broken ankles every year."

Eddie isn't planning to go into on any unpaved trails today, but it's good to know. "Thanks, man. Appreciate it."

 _Eddie how much longer!_ the goo demands as Eddie leaves the building. 

At the beginning of the shortest trail, he stops and takes the backpack off, and adjusts the zippers so that there's a fairly large gap for the goo to see out of. Then he uses two twist-ties he'd gotten at the coffeeshop to hook the zipper tabs together so that the gap can't accidentally get bigger. "Okay?" he asks.

_Acceptable!_

He slings the bag back on - carefully - and starts down the trail. It's still sort of early, and he sees only a few other people up ahead of him. He can go slowly and no one will care. _What are we doing?_ the goo asks.

"Hiking."

_Why?_

"Well, first because I'm writing an article about this place for a travel magazine. Second, because no one from the Life Foundation is going to come looking for us here, for sure. And third, we can talk without anyone really noticing that I'm talking to myself, and not have to hole up somewhere to do it."

_You are not talking to yourself, you are talking to US!_

"I know that, but other people don't." 

Eddie feels something that feels like the goo is thinking about that, and then an abrupt shift that seems to be the goo noticing their surroundings. "It's pretty, isn't it?" he whispers. 

_We have never seen anything like it before._

That's pretty cool, getting to show an alien something they've never experienced before, even with all the other places they must have been, all the other planets. "A lot of these trees are hundreds of years old, if not older."

 _We like this place. It feels… peaceful. Thank you for bringing us here._ They push their jar against Eddie's back, but gently.

*

Eddie stops to rest after two miles, and sits down against a tree, turned away from the trail enough that he can open the backpack fully and look at the jar. The goo manifests the little eyes to look back at him, and a tiny tendril reaches up towards the lid. _Eddie… thirsty…_ they say. _Please?_

Eddie takes a deep breath, biting at his bottom lip. The goo might like the fresh air, and if they escape, this might be the best place for them to escape in. Better to be free out here in nature, maybe find a nice deer to be their host. And not sliming down some sidewalk in Eddie's neighborhood to get run over at any moment, or worse, bond wrong with some human and accidentally kill them. 

He opens one of the water bottles and takes a sip, then opens the jar. The tendril stops reaching upward when he drips a little water in. He watches the mass of them absorb it. "More?"

_More!_

He splashes a little more in. The goo swirls, absorbing it all again. 

Then the thin tendril shoots upward at speed and wraps around his wrist. Eddie yelps and tries to pull away, but it's too strong. He fumbles with the lid with his other hand, covering most of the open space, but can't bring himself to slam the metal lip down onto the tendril currently holding his wrist. He doesn't know what might happen if he does that. Will they split like that algae, and then he'll have two slime blobs to deal with?

_pleaseEddiePLEASE - won't hurt you - please -_

He flashes again on the memory of Maria cold on the table, lifeless eyes open, the stack of body bags. Cold revulsion runs through him, turning his stomach painfully. "Let go or I'll slam the lid down on you," he hisses at the slime. "I swear. I'm going to count to five. One... two...

The tendril lets go of him at four. 

_cannot live in jar forever_

"Then I'll let you go right here, if you want." Eddie imagines opening the jar and tossing it towards some soft-looking bush, then booking it down the boardwalk. Or maybe this spot is still too close to civilization, the slime could slink back, find some unsuspecting hiker -

 _Noooooooo!!!!_ they howl loudly, startling him. He doesn't smack his head back against the tree, but it's a near thing. 

"No? What the fuck am I supposed to do with you, then? You said it yourself, you can't stay in there forever."

They froth in the jar, agitated beyond how Eddie has seen them yet. He stuffs the container back in the towel and hoodie nest and moves so that no part of him is touching the backpack. The goo continues move, now banging against the side of the jar hard enough that Eddie can hear it. They're clearly distressed, and Eddie is a little distressed to realize he feels bad about it. 

That doesn't mean he has a clue what to do with them. 

He watches them rock the jar without being able to free it from the backpack for another few seconds. Then he sighs. "Stop, okay? Just stop," he says, and touches his fingertips to the side of the container. 

_please,_ the goo moans, sounding sadder than he's heard it before now. _don't throw us out into this place of trees, please._

The protrusions they have pressed to the inside of the jar stroke along where his fingers are touching. He feels a wave of horrible loneliness, and longing. _Don't want to be alone, Eddie. We want to stay with you._

Eddie takes a deep breath. "Okay. For now. I'm zipping up the backpack again and we're going to finish our hike."

_Yes, please._

The slime doesn't say much more as he continues on the trail, but he feels them keeping the jar pressed to his back, and something that seems almost like a tentative sort of contentedness lingers in his mind.

*

Eddie chains his bike up in a different alley, just in case, and approaches his apartment building from the opposite side he would normally, still wearing his helmet to hide his face. No one seems to be hanging around. His door isn't kicked in today. He barricades it again to be safe.

 _What are you going to do now?_ the goo asks as he frees their jar.

"Finish my article." He sets them next to his laptop so they can watch. "Actually, I'm going to eat something first. Do you need food?"

He feels them think about it. _Not now._

He calls Dr. Skirth, but she doesn't answer. He leaves a message before making himself a sandwich. He can feel the goo watching him the entire time, the small eyes little white bumps above the blackness. 

When he finishes his sandwich and touches the jar, the goo asks, _If we promise not to try to bond with you, to sit far away, will you let us out?_

"How far away?"

_We will stay at the part of this desk next to the wall. And if Eddie tells us to go back in the jar, we promise we will._

"You were really upset out there, on the trail," Eddie says slowly.

They swirl, but much lazier now. _We were scared you would leave us. We like Eddie. You have fed us good food and given us water and talked to us. We don't want to be lonely again, so we promise to be good._

"If I say to get back in the jar, you will, you promise?"

The eyes appear on a small bump that's stretching upward; it looks like they're forming a head. They nod.

"Okay," Eddie breathes, and opens the jar.

The goo does as they said and crawls to the back of the desk, where it sits in a quivering lump with the head-protrusion watching him. "I'm going to finish my article now," Eddie tells them. 

They nod again.

*

In three hours, Eddie finishes two of the travel pieces and sends them both in. "Glad those are off my plate," he mutters, more to himself than to the goo, rolling his shoulders to get some of the tension out from sitting hunched over. The goo has stayed mostly in the same place - he thinks they might have oozed a tiny bit closer to him, but they haven't launched themselves at his head or tried to grab him or anything scary.

The head-protrusion moves inquisitively. 

"Okay, you've been good, you can come close enough to touch," Eddie says to them. He puts his hand, palm up, on the desk. His heart is beating only a little faster.

The goo inches closer slowly, as if it's afraid he'll snatch his hand back at any second and yell at them again. Carefully, they extend a blob of themselves to rest on his palm, keeping the majority of their mass on the desk. They're slick and slightly cool, and Eddie is a little surprised to find they're only a tiny bit sticky. _Hi, Eddie._

"I got a lot of work done, thanks for being chill."

_We are getting hungry again._

Eddie thinks about what he has in the refrigerator and cupboards, now that it's been determined the goo will eat most basic meats and does not like green vegetables. He knows it's not much; he tends to buy enough for a day or two at a time from the bodega, and not do much actual grocery shopping. Plus, it's hard to carry more than a couple bags on the bike.

"Um, I think I've got some ramen - those are noodles, in a soup," he explains, and thinks about what it looks like in the hopes that the space slime will get the picture, "and maybe some potatoes in the freezer, like, tater tots?"

_We like the shrimp you fed us._

"I don't have any more of that, but there's a fish market down the road, across from where I usually shop. They're not too expensive, so we could get shrimp there."

_Have to go back into the container to go with you?_

"Yeah, how else are you going to go?"

The goo sends him a perfect mental picture of themselves flattened out and draped over Eddie's shoulders, underneath his shirt. It's startling, to know they can do that sort of thing, put thoughts right into his brain. 

_Not like we are changing your own thoughts. Just wanted you to see._

Eddie sucks in a breath. "I think for today, you'll have to ride in the jar."

They ripple slightly in displeasure but don't protest. _Go now?_

It's nearly five. "Yeah, now's good, I guess. Thank you for behaving while I was working, and I guess thanks for keeping me company." He strokes a fingertip over the blob resting on his palm and feels them vibrate just slightly. "Seems like you need company too, huh?" 

_We are not accustomed to gentleness,_ they say after a moment. _Did not know… did not know kindness was the thing we were searching for._

Eddie feels a wave of sadness at that, entirely his own. He strokes the blob softly once more. "Okay, in the jar, and we'll find some dinner."

The goo crawls back into the jar without complaint. Eddie feels almost bad latching it, but he also doesn't want them bursting out in the middle of the fish market and eating like, a thousand dollars' worth of uni, or something like that. He gets them wrapped up in the backpack again and puts it on so that the goo can talk to him while he locks up his laptop and puts his boots back on. _The bad men from the lab have not tried to come back._

"Not that we've been here for, no."

_Are you worried they will return?_

"Yeah. Especially since I still haven't heard back from the doctor that let me into the Life Foundation building in the first place." He settles a ballcap on his head, then pulls the hood of his sweatshirt up over it. 

They're out of the building and heading down the street when the goo speaks again. _Why did you go there?_

"To the lab? I was looking for Maria, mostly."

_She was your friend. You were kind to her, like you are to us._

"I tried to be," Eddie sighs. 

_We saw her memories. You were kind,_ the goo insists. 

"It's not right, getting people who don't have anything to volunteer for experiments." He grumbles it mostly into the collar of his jacket. "And I don't blame you, you didn't understand either. It's Carlton fucking Drake."

There's the feeling like the goo is thinking about something. _We saw Carlton Drake in the lab. Can you do something about this man, to stop him?_

"I tried once before."

The jar shifts slightly, pressing against him. _Eddie, you… tried before? It did not end up how you expected?_

Eddie sighs again. "My former fiancee was a lawyer, representing the Life Foundation," he says, then wonders if the goo even knows what a lawyer is. "Uh, a lawyer is someone who works for you if you're in trouble, and the Foundation was in trouble. I read some emails - some written messages - I shouldn't have read, and used the information to try and expose Drake during an interview. Instead, he got me fired, and Anne got fired because I read the confidential stuff." 

He shoves his hands into his jacket pocket. "So I had no job and no fiancee, and Dr. Skirth approached me. Said she couldn't go along with what Drake was doing any longer. That he was experimenting on homeless people. And I'd seen Maria was gone, and thought - maybe at least I could get her out of there. At least do something."

_You did do something, Eddie. You rescued me._

Eddie smiles at that. He pushes the button for the crosswalk. "How come you say 'me' sometimes and 'us' other times?"

_Does not make a difference. All of us are Venom._

That doesn't quite make sense to Eddie, but since it seems to make sense to the goo, he'll just go with it. "I know you told me once before; that's your name? Venom?"

_Yes, we are Venom._

"Cool." He goes into the fish market and feels excitement pulse from the goo. "Shit, I forgot to leave a gap so you could see."

 _Could have let us ride on your shoulders,_ they grumble. 

Eddie finds the cheapest shrimp and gets a couple pounds, whispering under his breath about the various seafood he sees. Maybe Venom would like clams? He gets some of those, and a nice-looking piece of salmon for himself. _What is there that is alive?_ the goo asks.

"Uh, crabs and lobsters, but those are pretty pricey." Eddie drifts towards the next display. "These clams I got are supposedly still alive."

They seem pleased at that. Eddie goes over to the large freezers, and thinks about getting the big bag of odds and ends that's labeled to make stock from, but then remembers the goo saying the scientists in the lab fed them garbage. _They fed us rotting things,_ they interject. _What you are looking at... not rotten?_

"No, it's just bits that humans would boil up to make soup out of - none of it has gone bad. We just wouldn't eat these pieces by themselves," he explains, hoping no one is looking at him muttering to himself. "Like, there's shrimp shells and fish bones mixed in there."

_We understand. Crunchy. We would eat._

"You sure?"

They press the jar against his back. Eddie gets the soup stock mix.

*

_Can we come out now?_ Venom asks when Eddie takes their jar out of the backpack back at his apartment.

Eddie hesitates at that. "I want to cook up my fish, and I can't watch you while I'm doing that. How about you stay in the jar on the counter while I make my dinner, and then you can come out to eat your stuff?"

They ripple. The small eyes blink up at him. _That is acceptable, Eddie._

"You're going to be too big for this jar soon, anyway," Eddie says. He sets them on the counter, then unpacks his purchases. The soup mix goes in the freezer for another day. He divides the shrimp up into portions, roughly how much he remembers the slime eating yesterday, and leaves a portion out for it to eat now. "Uh, you want to try the clams now, too?"

 _Yes please._ They swirl happily, or at least, Eddie thinks they're happy. The dim feeling he can sort of get from them when he touches the jar feels like they're pleased. 

"You seem a lot more agreeable tonight," he says, once he's gotten his piece of salmon into the frying pan.

They press the hand-shaped protrusion against the glass, so Eddie touches his fingers to it as well, to hear their response. _Happy that you give us food we like. Happy that you trust us more, and will let us come out of the jar sometimes._

"I haven't really had anyone to talk to recently," Eddie admits, feeling sort of stupid as he says it. "Mrs. Chen, yeah, but I can't hang out in the bodega for hours just to chat. I used to sit with Maria sometimes, talking about the dumbest stuff. What we'd do if we didn't have to think about money. What cartoons we remembered best from the papers when we were kids."

Carefully, he flips the salmon over, and gets a plate from the cupboard. He's got some baby carrots that Mrs. Chen had insisted he buy a few days ago - "they're on sale, Eddie, and you look like you need some vegetables" - so he throws those in a bowl with a little water to steam in the microwave. 

His dinner is shaping up to be almost healthy for once. 

As he waits the last few minutes on the fish, he puts all of Venom's seafood in a bowl, then some water in another bowl. He sets those on the table. Then he makes up his own plate and gets a beer from the fridge. 

Lastly, he opens the jar and sets sideways next to the bowls.

The goo crawls out slowly, almost like they're worried moving too quickly will startle Eddie. He drags a carrot through the melted butter and sticks it in his mouth, dripping onto his shirt because he's watching Venom, and not paying attention to what he's feeding himself. 

Venom oozes over to their bowls and climbs up on the lip of the one holding the seafood. They look down at it. Eddie watches tiny tendrils extend and pat the shrimp, then the clams. 

He takes a bite of his own fish. He sucks in the kitchen, but it's cooked through, and he used enough salt and pepper. 

The tendrils pull one of the shrimps into the rest of their mass. Eddie hears a muffled crunching noise and realizes it's the shell being pulverized. He pauses mid-chew. "Seriously?"

They blink at him, then eat another shrimp the same way. 

"Are you going to eat the clam shells, too?" 

Tendrils pick up one of the clams. Eddie watches the goo examine it for a moment before disappearing it into the blackness. He waits for a cracking sound, but instead the empty shell halves are pushed back out of the slime a moment later, and dropped on the table. 

"Huh," Eddie breathes. He eats a few more bites of his own dinner as Venom works their way through most of their bowl. Then he sticks his fork into a carrot and offers it to them. "You liked the carrot earlier, I think?"

Tendrils take the carrot very carefully from the fork and draw it into their mass. Eddie touches his fingertip to their cool surface. _We would not eat carrot if there was tasty shrimp to eat instead, but it is fine. Can we try your cooked fish?_

Eddie flakes off a bite and holds it out. Venom accepts it with even more care. The little eyes seem to widen at the taste. They touch his hand. _That is also nice! But we like alive the best of all._

Eddie chuckles. "Fair enough."

*

The goo sits on the table as he washes the dishes. After eating all the clams, they'd put the shells back into the bowl as Eddie watched, fascinated. "Thank you," he said.

 _Garbage,_ they told him.

"Yes, they're garbage." 

When he turns back around, drying his hands on a wad of paper towel, he thinks the goo looks bigger again. It probably is, after all the seafood they ate. He watches them dip tendrils into the bowl of water that he hadn't taken away, several times until they seem to no longer be thirsty. "Are you even going to fit back in the jar?" he asks, more to himself than to Venom.

Their head-protrusion swivels in his direction. Eddie sighs and reaches out his hand, and a tiny tendril curls around the tip of his pointer finger. _Do not want to be locked up again, Eddie._

"You can't be out alone while I'm asleep," he says firmly. 

They make the agitated ripple, but Eddie shakes his head. "You've behaved today, yes. But when I'm asleep, I want to know you've stayed in the same place. So you don't get into something you shouldn't, or get hurt, or end up somewhere where the Life Foundation could capture you again."

Their eyes seem to narrow. _You say that like we cannot take care of ourselves, like we are new spawn, and helpless._

"You're sitting on my table like a very large, half-melted gumdrop," Eddie points out.

The tendril squeezes his finger, but not hard. _We are not a gumdrop! We can defend us!_

Eddie looks at the blob of them and wants very badly to poke like they're that little guy who sold biscuits on the television when he was a kid. The Pillsbury Dough-Boy. He doesn't think the goo would like it, but he wants to do it anyway. He suppresses the urge and says, "You want to stay here, you go in a container when I'm asleep. It doesn't have to be that locking jar, since it looks like it might be too small for you pretty fucking soon, but it has to be something that closes."

 _What else besides the jar,_ they say warily after a moment.

"Let me see what else I have." 

The tendril unwinds, and Eddie starts looking through his cupboards. He has a few knockoff Tupperware things that look big enough, a plastic bin with a latching lid that he used to keep socks in but has been empty for a while, an oversize popcorn tin, and a barrel-shaped plastic container that has a few stale cheese balls still at the bottom. 

He remembers there's a Pringles can in the trash and laughs to himself at the idea, but realistically, it's too small. He sets the assorted options on the table for Venom to investigate. "If these are all bad, I think there's a mostly-empty toolbox under my bed, since it's missing most of the little dividers, but that's all I got."

They touch all of the new options. "Are you just going to keep getting bigger?" he asks, as they ooze up the side of the popcorn tin.

A tendril reaches out to rest on his hand. _We should not. We are only making up for how much of us wasted away in the lab, or was taken._

"Taken?" Eddie shudders. "They - cut you?"

_Little bits at a time, to experiment on._

Eddie reaches out and strokes his hand over the blob of them, gently, without hardly thinking about what he's doing. _Hurt. But they did not damage us as much as they could have. And then you found us. This container is sufficient for now, if we must stay in it at night._

It's one of the rectangular fake Tupperwares. They climb into it, then out again. _Yes, it is fine._

"Cool." Eddie flashes briefly on the idea of getting them a cage, but it feels wrong to think about them like that. He just doesn't want them to crawl out of the apartment while he's asleep, or get stuck in the gap next to the fridge that's full of dust and crumbs, or fall out the window, or - or anything like that, really.

 _We would not fall out the window, Eddie,_ Venom sighs, as though Eddie's been thinking dumb shit at them for two years, and not just two days.


	3. Venom Interlude 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A bit of Venom's POV of the whole situation so far.

The place the humans kept them most of the time was cold. Not like ice, not so frozen that they couldn't move, but still a distinct chill that kept them on the bad side of sluggish. It meant they couldn't move away quick enough to avoid the sharp knife that scraped away tiny bits of them at a time. It stung every time, so many little cuts that they hurt almost constantly, and the pain made them angry. Made them distressed. When offered hosts, all they could do was feed, needing to repair.

The hosts were all unwilling and terrified, just like Venom.

The humans that studied them talked about symbiosis as though the humans were planning to offer hosts until true bonding could be achieved, or until Venom died. Even as a being who had gone through many hosts in their life, this felt strange and, as their time held hostage in the lab stretched on, felt wrong.

Then Eddie had rescued them. Kind Eddie, sweet Eddie, careful Eddie. Who believed he was sometimes sort of a mess, a thing Venom was confused by, because Eddie seemed to be dressed to human standards and seemed to behave as other humans behaved. He didn't try to study them, or scrape them with knives. Instead he talked to them, and fed them nice food, and carried them around in the container with him to all sorts of places.

They love him almost right away.

He seems afraid to let them out of the container from the laboratory at first. They're upset by this, but Eddie still doesn't try to hurt them, and he keeps on talking to them. They wonder if maybe Eddie is _lonely_ , a human feeling that the other hosts had thought about before they died. _Lonely_ doesn't mean the same as alone. 

It takes some time, but Venom begins to understand that they were _lonely_ before being captured by the human astronauts. Being part of Riot's team meant always being a little worried that they would be next to be eaten, if there was no other food, and always being a little worried about how they were the smallest of the symbiotes on the team, thus constantly being harassed. 

Kind Eddie, sweet Eddie, careful Eddie cares nothing about how Venom was among other Klyntar. They want to touch him, and want him to touch them. Wanting that is also a new feeling they're not used to, but Eddie speaks so kindly to them, even though they can tell he's scared of them. And scared that the people from the laboratory might come to his apartment and try to take Venom away.

They try to explain that they will protect him, but he doesn't seem to understand. They would show him, but he won't let them get close enough. They batter the inside of the laboratory container in frustration. It doesn't do any good; they can't get out of the jar on their own. They wonder if maybe they are speaking in a way Eddie doesn't understand, because he touches the jar to talk to them happily enough, but he doesn't want to open it for too long, in case they escape.

They climb out once, and he speaks sharply enough that they climb back in, ashamed. They want Eddie to like them. They want to stay with Eddie so that they don't feel _lonely_. 

He takes them to a place filled with many old trees and offers to let them go. They can feel he is hoping they will find an animal to act as host, that he doesn't mean it in a _mean_ way. He is still scared of them. They understand, to a point. Eddie doesn't know what symbiosis means, or how amazing it would feel. To him, they are slime that can talk. But they don't want to bond only partway with some four-legged creature in the woods, when Eddie is perfect. 

He offers, and they plead to stay with him. They try to show him how alone they would be without him. 

_Eddie is lonely, too,_ they don't say.


	4. Eddie - Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trouble comes for Eddie...

The Life Foundation goons return on Sunday night. Eddie barricaded the door again after dinner, but it doesn't do any good, and he can't do anything but jump up from the couch in fear as the door is kicked in. 

The goo was on the coffee table; they'd been watching an old episode of _No Reservations_ together on Netflix. A tiny tendril stretched out from their mass and was wrapped partially around Eddie's wrist, because the goo wanted to tell him what of the foods that were shown on screen were things they would like to try. They wanted to sit next to him on the sofa but Eddie was worried about their slightly tacky surface not getting along with the leather, so they stayed on the table.

He's only dimly aware now of the goo climbing his arm, because there's an angry-looking bald guy pointing a taser at him, and that's scaring Eddie more at the moment.

Eddie puts his hands up immediately, not keen on getting electrocuted in his own apartment. Two other goons flank the guy with the taser, big guys, looking like they spend a lot of time in the gym. 

Eddie is aware he's overthinking.

 _Eddie why are your hands up? This makes us look bad._

"Where the hell is Mr. Drake's property?" the taser man asks. 

_We will deal with them,_ the goo says.

"What - what property?" Eddie manages, and "Deal with them how?", and then something shoots out of his arm directly around the neck of the man with the taser. 

Everything after that is a loud, scary blur. Strange protrusions extend from him. His body moves in ways he knows he can't possibly be controlling. Bones crack as the things shooting out of him batter the Life Foundation goons into unconsciousness, or worse. He tries to close his eyes and finds his eyes are already closed. Something else cracks. 

"Holy fucking shit," he breathes, when he can see and feel normally once again.

_We said we would deal with them._

Panic is a heavy weight in his chest. The three men are unmoving on the floor. Some of their limbs are at distinctly unnatural angles, a thing that is definitely turning Eddie's stomach. He swallows hard. "But now - now they're unconscious in my apartment, holy shit. And I can guarantee you, that was loud enough that someone's calling the cops right now."

_Let us take over and we will deal with it. We promise, Eddie._

Whatever the space slime is going to do, it can't be worse than going to prison for murder. "I don't want to know a thing, whatever it is you're going to do," he chokes out.

 _You will not. We will keep you safe, Eddie,_ they say, and Eddie's vision whites out.

*

When he surfaces again, he's in his bed, in his apartment, and there are no police officers shaking him. The goo is a black blob curled up on his chest. They seem to be purring, or maybe snoring. Eddie stares at them for a long moment, then scrabbles up to sit against the headboard. "Venom, wake up!"

_Sleep, Eddie, it is good for you._

"What did you do?" he all but yells, grabbing the lump of Venom and holding them away from him. The sheets tangle around his feet as he tries to kick the fabric away. He gets out of the bed, clumsy and awkward, and stumbles around the shelf, still holding the goo as they flex in his hands. 

_We told you, we would deal with it, and we did._

There are no Life Foundation goons on the floor. The lamp, which Eddie distantly remembers being broken into pieces, is completely missing. "What - where - shouldn't there be some fucking bloodstains or something?"

 _Cleaned,_ Venom says. 

"Go in your goddamned box," Eddie breathes, and drops the goo into their container, closes it, and sets a pile of books he hasn't touched in months on top of it. They could probably still get out, but. 

He looks out the window. No bodies in the alley. He looks under the couch. No blood, no broken bits of anything. 

"Where did you put them?" he asks the box of slime. 

They ripple angrily at him, then hit the side of the box. Eddie shakes his head. "This is crazy. You can't come out of there."

They thump against the side of the box again. Eddie puts some more books on top of the lid. Then he goes into the bathroom, closes the door, and stares at his phone. He doesn't have any missed calls or text messages. It's probably good that there aren't any police departments calling him. He opens his recent contacts, then stops. There's not really anyone he can call about this. Anne would probably think he's crazy.

Eddie shakes his head at himself in the mirror, then brushes his teeth on autopilot, part of him waiting for someone to break down the door again. Venom's Tupperware is still in the same place when he goes back into the main room of the apartment; the books must be too heavy for it to move the container. He sighs and presses his hand to it. "Tell me what you did with those guys."

 _Took them out the metal stairs outside the window._ They mean the fire escape. _We ate the one that was badly injured._

Eddie's stomach rolls and he feels dizzy. "And the other two?" he makes himself ask.

_Left them in a pit at a… place where buildings are being made? Far from here._

"Why did you eat one of them?" He has to put his head between his knees for a second before he can get the words out.

_Brains are the best food._

"Oh, God." 

_We are not human, Eddie,_ Venom says patiently.

Eddie staggers backwards and slumps into the nearest thing there is to sit on. He stares at the goo in their rectangular plastic box. They stare back at him. "How the fuck did you…" he breathes, and has to put his head between his knees again. 

After a few minutes he thinks he's stopped feeling like he might throw up. "Okay, so you took over my body somehow, even though you're a slime mold the size of a bag of microwave popcorn, and you carried three fully-grown, super-jacked unconscious dudes down the fire escape, and you ate one of them - how - nope, I can't, and you left the other two at a construction site. Okay. Okay."

Eddie stands up, goes to the fridge, and gets a bottle of beer. He chugs the whole thing. 

Then he touches the box with a sigh. _Eddie,_ the goo says. _We inhabited your body, but only for a few hours. We made sure you did not know or see any of what we did. And we did not look like you while we removed the men._

"This is wild." He gets another beer, but drinks it with his hand on the Tupperware. 

_Did not mean to distress you, but we had to protect us._

"So you... bonded with me? Is that what you do to hosts? Make them not remember anything?"

Venom pushes back and forth against the plastic, clearly upset by the question. _No. We took over. That wasn't bonding, not the way we want to bond. True symbiosis is the both of us._

Eddie shakes his head. "I don't get it, but I also just drank two bottles of beer in five minutes on an empty stomach."

 _Time to eat?_ the goo asks, and then pushes upward against the lid of the container and completely topples the stack of books. 

"I figured you could do that," Eddie mutters. His head swims a little. "I feel like I should be more scared here. Yeah, I should be more scared. And I should have another beer. Are you going to judge me for being three beers down at -" he looks at his watch, "one in the afternoon? Shit, I was going to do some writing today."

The goo climbs out of the box and sits in a lump on the table, looking up at him. 

"This is all such a horrible fucking idea," Eddie groans. 

He puts some tater tots in the toaster oven to cook while he makes a sandwich, figuring lunch is a good plan if he's going to keep drinking, and gets the murderous slime-lump their bowl of raw shrimp. "I should probably stop thinking of you as just a bunch of goo," he says. "You have a name, I should use it, that's the right thing to do when the sentient slime you rescued from a lab eats a scary man for you."

Venom manifests the head-blob and bobs it at Eddie as though they agree. 

"No one's ever eaten a dude for me before," he adds, and the goo extends a little hand-protrusion towards him. Eddie sighs and reaches out to touch. 

_Eddie, you are being affected by the alcohol. We would also like to know if we can have some chocolate?_

"How do you know how alcohol works? And how do you know about chocolate? I don't think I have any right now."

 _We know how intoxicants work. And you like chocolate. We saw it when we were part of you. It would make you feel better right now._ They withdraw their touch and start in on their shrimp. 

"Well, I don't have any right now," Eddie mutters.

The toaster oven dings. He dumps the tater tots on his plate next to the sandwich, grabs another beer and the ketchup from the fridge, and sits down at the table to eat with the goo. They ooze closer to him and pull their bowl along with them. Eddie eyes them as they extend a thin tendril to curl lightly around his wrist. _Eddie, your food is not like mine today._

"No, I got a ham sandwich and tots today."

They steal one of the tots. Eddie watches them shove it into their small, tooth-filled mouth, and their eyes seem to get bigger. "You like it?"

 _Yes, we like this._

They offer him a shrimp, and he shakes his head. "No, thanks, I like them cooked." 

He shares the rest of the tater tots with the goo, a little wonder-struck the whole time. Although the slightly woozy feeling could just be the beer.

*

"Okay, so, clearly making you go into the box really doesn't do anything, since you can just pop the lid off and get out," Eddie says to the goo, "but I want to take a nap before I get some writing in, and I still don't want you crawling all over the apartment alone."

They're still sitting on the table next to their bowl of water. They watched while Eddie washed the dishes and took out the garbage - he found all the pieces of the broken lamp in there, and wanted to get rid of the evidence. "Did you clean it all up while you were being me, or did you clean it up as you after you dumped me in my bed?" he asks. "No, you don't need to answer."

The goo wobbles back and forth. Eddie spends a minute picturing the blob of them picking up the lamp, one piece of broken ceramic at a time. Then he rubs his hands over his face. "I need a nap. Then I'm going to finish at least one article."

The goo oozes towards the edge of the table. Eddie watches it drop down onto the seat of the chair, then climb up the laddered back, balance on the top piece of wood, and stretch out towards him. 

After a moment, he extends his hand, and they climb onto his arm, cool and a little heavier than he expects. "Don't eat me," he mutters.

_Would NOT!_

Eddie carries them and their Tupperware to the bed, and sets the container on the little table that functions as a nightstand. The goo oozes off his arm and into the box. "I'm setting the alarm on my phone for two hours, then I'm going to write for a while before dinner, and write more after dinner," he tells them. "Gotta pay those bills."

They bob their little blob-head. Eddie puts his phone down next to them and flops onto the bed. 

He wakes up before the alarm and sees that the box is closer to him, but the goo is still in it, little eyes watching him. "Good job, slime," he mutters blearily, then rolls over and falls asleep again. 

Someone yelling outside wakes Eddie the second time, and a check of his phone tells him that the alarm is about to go off anyway, so he gets up and shuffles into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. As he fills the pot with water, he sees he goo oozing across the floor. "Uh, glad I swept the other day," he mutters, and walks over to offer them a ride. 

They wrap around his wrist and forearm. _Eddie!_

"Yeah, dude?"

_We stayed in the box while you slept._

"Thank you for that," Eddie replies. "Uh, what am I doing with you now? You want to sit on the counter? I was trying to make coffee."

 _What is coffee?_

"You know what chocolate is, but not coffee? Uh, it's a... roasted sort of bean that we kind of boil with water to make a hot drink, mostly for the mild stimulant that's in it. I guess there are some people who drink it for the taste." He lets the goo dismount onto the counter next to the coffeemaker. 

They watch as he pours the water into the reservoir, and scoops grounds into the filter basket. Then they hiss when the water starts to boil noisily. "Whoa. That's the first actual sound you've made."

They lean towards the coffeemaker, then pull back with another hiss and reach for Eddie. He lets them climb onto his arm again, and brings them to the desk. "Chill here and I'll be back when the coffee's done."

_Hungry!_

"I'll bring you a snack," Eddie says. 

He rifles through the kitchen cupboards. There's an unopened bag of barbeque potato chips and one packet of ramen, and that's it. He really needs to go shopping. "I guess if you don't like these, there's still the bag of seafood bits the freezer," he tells Venom when he brings the bag over with his cup of coffee. 

The goo wiggles curiously. Eddie opens his laptop, then the bag of chips. After a minute, he hears crunching. 

Robby must have looked at the lab pictures; there's an email with the subject line of just **WTF**. It reads: _E - you've already let this dude fuck you over once. This is some heavy shit but are you sure you want to go there again?_

Eddie sighs, and scrunches up his face at the screen. He's not sure. He minimizes the window for now. 

Something taps his wrist. It's Venom, halfway in the foil bag, a tendril extended to offer him a chip. "Thanks."

_Can we try your coffee?_

"Sure, I guess." 

He watches as the goo dips a very thin tendril into his mug. It withdraws again almost immediately. "Too hot?"

They touch his arm. _You drink it like that, Eddie?_

Eddie has to laugh at that. "Most of the time."


	5. Eddie - Chaaaapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The road trip begins! More snacks are had!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has been reading along so far, I truly appreciate it!

"So when you were… uh, dealing with those jerks from the Life Foundation, did you read their minds, find out anything about their possible plans for getting you back?" Eddie asks, dropping a dirty towel on the bathroom floor - the curtain hasn't really been doing a good job since being torn down and then fixed with duct tape, and at least this way the tile isn't slick with water when he gets out of the shower. He needs to just buy a new curtain. 

The goo is sitting on the toilet lid in a lump, watching. It should be weird, the slime watching him undress, but Eddie supposes people with pets get undressed in front of their animals all the time. Mr. Belvedere sometimes used to stare at Eddie while he got dressed in the morning, especially if breakfast hadn't been served yet. But pets didn't hold conversations, or eat live humans, or clean up blood from the floor. He figures Venom is less a pet and more a very strange, scary roommate. 

"Like, do we need to get out of here for a few days? Would that be a good idea? I can't really afford more than a couple nights in some shitty motels, but I guess I can bring the laptop and get some work done."

The goo extends a tendril to touch his hand. _We do not think Carlton Drake has given up on stealing us again,_ they say, and their white eye-spots narrow to slits. _Could not… read their minds in the way you are thinking, Eddie, but we could tell they had bad intentions._

"Mmm, okay. Maybe we will leave town for a couple days." He sticks his hand under the spray to make sure it's warm enough, then gets in. 

He's shampooed his hair and is squeezing body wash into his palm when the curtain twitches, and the goo climbs up onto the edge of the tub. He stares at them for a second. "Uh, Venom, what…"

Some water hits them, and they ripple wildly. "Guess you've never taken a shower," Eddie says, then cracks up laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing. 

A tendril whips out to wrap around his calf. _You are laughing at us!_

"You looked so startled! Can you get out of here, though, really?"

_We wanted to know what you were doing! Could not see you._

Eddie frowns at them. "Humans need to wash, dude. I am washing."

_You could not wash in the kitchen?_

That takes a second, until Eddie figures out that they've watched him do dishes in the kitchen sink, and the last time he showered, they were wrapped up in the backpack. "No, we wash in the bathroom, in the shower," he explains. 

They ooze down into the tub with him. 

"You know what, my life has already gotten so weird, I guess this is just happening." He lathers the gel between his hands and proceeds to scrub up, pretending the goo isn't watching. Ignoring them mostly works; Eddie has to stare at the weird moldy spot in the corner of the tub as he washes his bits, very pointedly pretending he's alone. 

Soapy water swirls all around Venom as he rinses off. They're careful to avoid his feet, and don't try to trip him with any of their tendrils or anything. He waits until the water swirling around them goes clear and stays clear before he turns it off. They touch his ankle then. _You did not say we need to rub soap on our body as well?_

"I didn't even think of it," Eddie says. Again, the absurdity. "I think you probably got clean enough with all the soap suds, though. Do you feel okay?"

The goo seems to think about that for a second. _We feel better than we have felt since before being abducted._

"That's great!" 

_What do humans of your planet do now?_

"I'm going to dry off with a towel and then put clothes on," Eddie explains. "Do you… need me to dry you off?"

_We want to stay in here for a while longer._

"Sure. Want the water on?"

_No, we like the warm space like this. The lab was cold._

"Okay." Eddie grabs the dry towel that's hanging up, the goo lets go of his ankle, and he steps out of the tub. He closes the curtain as much as possible behind him to trap the steam.

He's gotten dressed, dug out a duffle bag to pack for their little trip since the goo will need to ride in the backpack, brushed his teeth, and is trying to flatten his hair into something slightly less stupid when the shower curtain moves. He gives up on his hair and turns around; the goo is now sitting on the edge of the tub. Eddie offers them his arm. "Guess I better carry you since you just got clean, don't want to ooze around on the floor picking up God knows what."

Venom climbs up his arm and sits on his shoulder. Eddie decides he's just going to go with it today. They seem a little more damp and sticky than normal, probably from the shower, but they don't seem to be leaving any sort of residue on his shirt, which is good. 

_We would rather ride under your shirt but you are scared._

"I am not."

 _You are still afraid we will try to bond with you when you don't want it,_ they say, and they sound a little sad about it.

Eddie still is, a little. But they've promised not to. And clearly they trust him not to give them back to the Life Foundation, so maybe that trust needs to start going both ways. "Okay, you can ride under my shirt. But if I tell you not to touch somewhere, or it's too weird for me, you go back to my shoulder like you are now. Okay?"

 _Yes, Eddie._ They press their little blob-head to his neck almost like how a cat would nuzzle, then ooze under his shirt. It tickles slightly. They drape over his shoulder, from collarbone in front to shoulder blade in the back, and Eddie feels a rush of contentment. _Thank you, Eddie._

"Sure… I guess that spot is okay." 

They poke a small head out of the collar of his shirt to watch as he packs some clothes for this spontaneous road trip they're apparently going on. "So where do you want to go?" Eddie asks them, tossing a couple pairs of socks into the duffle. "Inland, and hit up some little regional museums? I could work those into an article. Or we could go south, maybe visit the aquarium? The one travel rag would definitely buy a piece on Monterey. Not sure I trust you not to eat some of the displays, though."

 _We don't want to look at animals that are caged,_ they say. They nuzzle lightly at his neck again.

"Okay, that's fair enough. I can see how that would be weird for you." He folds a few t-shirts in, and after a moment's thought, a sweatshirt just in case. "What about an actual beach? One that's maybe warmer than here?"

_Hot?_

Eddie reminds himself that the goo is actually an alien that's been to other planets, not just some Earth-standard slime mold that miraculously gained sentience, and asks, "I guess that depends on your definition of hot? For me, hot is when I have to wear sandals."

There's a strong feeling of amusement from the goo, and Eddie is pleased to have made them alien-laugh. _We went to a planet once where lava ran in rivers. Did not stay long - too hot for our kind._

"Okay, so nothing resembling fire. We'd have to climb a volcano for that, anyway. This is more like… the warmth of the shower, but not steamy. Does that make sense to you?"

_Yes. Can we go to this beach?_

"Sure. I bet we can find a place where it'll be just you and me, and then I can write an article about hidden beaches along the coast or something like that." 

Venom feels like they're thinking about something for a moment, and then they ask, _These are not the sorts of things you wrote reports on before you found us?_

"You mean, before Drake got me fired? No, I didn't report on this sort of stuff." Eddie figures he's got enough clothes and zips the duffel, then pauses with his hands resting on the bag. "Okay, this I can bungee to the back of the bike, but what are you going to ride in?"

 _Backpack?_

"But what in the backpack? That Tupperware might be too weird a shape." He carries his bag over to the table and leaves it there, then picks up the backpack with the nest of towels still in it. 

The goo leans their head towards it. _We don't like the containers, Eddie._

"I know, but you need to be in something solid in there. And hotel rooms are gross, so you need something to go in at night while I'm asleep."

_Sleep with you._

Eddie remembers waking up from the blackout with Venom curled up on his chest. "Do you even really sleep?"

_We can rest… we don't sleep like humans sleep. Your brain is stupid and requires so much unconsciousness._

"My brain is stupid? Thanks, dude." They nuzzle against his neck some more. It's strangely endearing. "Okay, what if you ride in the jar, but I don't put the lid on? And maybe along the way we can find something nicer?"

_This would be acceptable for now. Does this mean we can sleep with you at night?_

Eddie reaches up to pat them awkwardly. "I'll think about it."

*

Eddie emails his magazine contacts, explaining that he'll be traveling for a few days and that if they want a specific piece from a specific place to text or call him. Then he emails Anne - they haven't spoken much since everything went down in flames, but he feels like someone in the city should know he's not here, in case his building floods or there's an earthquake, that sort of thing. Part of him wishes he could tell her about his rescue slime, but he knows better. The Life Foundation has probably hacked his email by now. So he doesn't mention them, or say specifically where he's going.

Venom climbs into the laboratory jar willingly enough, and Eddie leaves the lid off as he promised as he tucks them into the backpack. He does zip it into one of the outside pockets, just in case. 

"I'm sure we'll find all sorts of seafood places along the way, maybe get some cheap oysters," Eddie tells them as he pulls the backpack on and grabs the duffel. 

_Or hunt in the ocean,_ they reply.

"You - you want to go in the ocean? To look for food?"

 _Yes, we know how,_ the goo says firmly. 

"You won't get lost?" Eddie asks, and they nudge the jar gently into his back. 

They ride south without talking for a little over an hour, until Eddie needs to stop and stretch his legs out, maybe get a bottle of pop. He's fastened the zipper on the backpack in a way that there's a gap and the goo can sort of see out, and as they walk towards the small gas station in this small-looking town, Venom says, _There are not so many buildings here._

"That's right, we're not in a big city anymore."

They flood amusement towards him. _Big city by human standards._

"Yeah, yeah," Eddie mutters, going into the building. He gets the feeling that they're looking around curiously at all the things they can see inside, so he wanders around the small convenience store for a few minutes. 

_Your world is so different from other places we have been,_ they say finally, and Eddie thinks he hears a strange sort of wonder in the words.

He grabs a Pepsi from the coolers. "Want a snack?"

_Yes, Eddie!_

He remembers them asking for chocolate, and walks over to the candy display. There's the standard assortment, Snickers and Milky Way and Reece's, and the things Eddie only ever remembers seeing in gas stations like Whatchamacallit, and some weird white chocolate thing he's never tried. "Any idea what you want to get?"

 _This seems to be a large number of snack choices,_ they reply. _What does Eddie like? Ones with lots of chocolate?_

"Well, the thing with candy bars is, they're usually a bunch of different things in the middle of the bar and then just chocolate around the outside. So a Milky Way bar doesn't have all that much chocolate. And some are really just a chocolate-flavored coating, not the real stuff."

_Don't want that kind!_

"Me neither." Eddie sees a regional brand down towards the bottom, milk chocolate bars with just one or two other things mixed in. He grabs a peanut and an almond, then asks, "You want the dried cherries and pecans, too?"

_We would try._

He pays for the candy and soda. Outside, he sets the backpack on the seat of his bike so that he can zip the chocolate into a pocket. There's bound to be a turn-off where he can sit and share it with the goo without anyone seeing them. He takes a long drink of the Pepsi, then starts to tucks it into the little net bottle-holder. "Shit, did I need to get you water? I forgot, dude, sorry."

_Can we try what you're drinking?_

Eddie unzips the main part of the bag and sees the goo blink up at him in the sunlight. He pours a little Pepsi into the bottle cap, then drips it out of the cap onto the goo. They swirl animatedly. _It has the same chemicals as your coffee! We like those chemicals!_

Right, it's probably the caffeine. He gives them another capful. They reach their tiny hand-protrusion out to softly pat his wrist. _Thank you, Eddie._

Eddie grins down at them, feeling only a little baffled at this whole situation. "All right, let's find someplace where you can try the chocolate without anyone seeing you."

The road they took westward to get to the gas station is mostly rural, houses and farmland, and no place that looks worthy of stopping to eat chocolate with the goo. But it connects with the coastal highway at a State beach, so Eddie parks his motorcycle there in one of the spots, and takes the little path down to the sand. There are only a handful of people around, so he settles down a ways from the closest one, and brings the backpack between his knees. He opens it and looks down at the goo. They squint back up at him. 

"Hello again," Eddie says. 

_Bright!_

"Yeah, it's pretty sunny out here. Chocolate?"

 _Yes!_ They stretch their head-blob up above the rim of the jar, but not too far. Eddie opens the chocolate with peanuts first and breaks it into squares. He offers one to Venom, who takes it in a thin curling tendril and stuffs it in their weird mouth. Their eyes widen.

"You're sort of cute, you know that?" he mutters to them. 

_What does that mean?_

"I guess it means that even though you're a weird blob of slime that I recklessly stole from someone who'll probably kill me to get you back, I kind of like hanging out with you. You're not bad company." He pops a square of the candy bar into his own mouth, then hands the goo another. 

_We were lonely, before you found us,_ they say, once they've eaten. _Where we're from... we were not the sort of Klyntar that other Klyntar liked. We did not want to take part in so much destruction. We hope Eddie understands? We wanted..._ another odd pause, and the goo stretches a tendril out of the jar to wind around Eddie's fingers, _a friend._

Eddie is oddly touched. "So what, you just wanted someone you could hang out and eat chocolate with?"

_Never had chocolate before today. But yes._

He strokes his fingers gently over the bit of them that's clinging to his other hand. "It's nice to have someone to talk to," he says, looking out at the water. It's the same ocean, but it looks different here. He shares another bite. It's not the best chocolate he's ever eaten, but it's good, and the saltiness of the peanuts are in nice contrast to the sweet, creamy milk chocolate. "This is pretty nice, huh?"

They squeeze his fingers. _Yes. Nice._

*

At the little ocean-facing motel, Eddie lets the goo climb out of the jar and up onto his shoulders, where they flatten out underneath his t-shirt. The press of them - he can't really say _weight_ , since stretched out like this, he doesn't really register that there's any weight to them at all - feels sort of good after the hours on the bike. He wants to walk around outside a little bit, but he doesn't want to wear the backpack any longer today, and he doesn't want to leave Venom alone in the room.

 _We want to go with you, Eddie,_ they say.

"Just don't let anyone see you, not unless I tell you specifically that it's okay to come out."

They squeeze his shoulder slightly in reply. 

Eddie makes sure he's got the necessities - motel key, wallet, phone, sunglasses - and steps outside. The sun is just starting to set. Eddie is a veteran of thousands of sunsets over the ocean, but he has to admit this one is pretty. He makes sure the door locked behind him, then goes down the wooden steps. Next to this motel is a small bar-and-grill sort of place with a prominent carryout window, and on the other side of that, a little shop that looks like it sells all sorts of things from cigarettes to bestselling novels - from a decade ago.

He takes a few notes on his phone, then walks down to the beach across the street just to stretch his legs a little. _Are we getting food?_ the goo asks, and Eddie feels a gentle tendril of them curl over his ear. He looks around, but the only other people on this beach are far enough away that they wouldn't be able to make out the black line against his skin. 

"We could." Eddie's stomach growls. "Okay, for sure."

The goo nuzzles lightly against his neck. _Quiet here, too._

"It is." For all that Eddie was inside his apartment alone, the streets of his neighborhood were always bustling, even late into the night. Cars, cabs, people shouting, arguing, making up, making love in the apartment above his. 

_We think this is the quietest place we have ever been,_ they say, and Eddie raises his eyebrows.

"Really, after all the places you've been?"

 _Yes._

Eddie doesn't quite know what to say to that. It's strange to think about, that across all the worlds Venom has gone to, this random Bean Hollow beach is the chillest spot. "I think that's kinda nice," he says eventually. He lifts a hand and pats the goo. "I guess if we had to go on the run, this was a cool place to stop."

There's a feeling of amusement from them. _We are not_ that _far from San Francisco, Eddie._

"Yeah, but those Life Foundation assholes don't know what direction we went. And we're not staying in this town for more than one night." It's barely sundown, but Eddie is enjoying just standing on this little beach with the goo, who is nuzzling against his neck some more. "Did you want to go swimming? You said you wanted to hunt for food. In the ocean."

_We want the fried potatoes now. Go in the water later._

"Fried - French fries, you mean?" Eddie asks, surprised. He rocks back on his heels in the sand. "When did you learn about fries?"

 _Saw people eating them outside the restaurant we walked past - smelled like tater tots, we want to try._

"Sure, we can get fries." He reaches up to pat them again, and they wind around his fingers. "You'll have to go back under my shirt, though."

Venom obliges, stretching out across Eddie's shoulders once more. He hikes up the little path, then crosses the highway back to the bar and grill. There's a big laminated menu up next to the carryout window. The offerings look to be mostly standard for bar food - burgers, BLTs, wings that probably come with limp celery. _French fries, Eddie!_ the goo says, squeezing a little.

"For you, but what do I want?" Eddie whispers under his breath. 

They rub up against the back of his neck. It's a weird sensation, and Eddie shivers. _What are... jalapeno poppers?_

He ends up getting two kinds of sliders, fries, and the poppers, and hoping it'll be enough to share with the goo. While they're putting his order together, he goes to the little market on the other side of the restaurant and buys a six-pack from the cooler. Then he takes the food and the beer and the goo back down to the beach, and finds a spot that seems mostly secluded. 

The goo climbs down him and sits in a lump on his thigh. They gobble up several fries at once, and look blissful. Eddie doesn't think he could actually explain to someone else what a blissful blob of slime really looks like, but Venom looks incredibly pleased by their early dinner choice. Eddie snags one of the fries to try, and finds they're nice and crisp. He opens the paper sack with the sliders and carefully takes one out - pulled pork, with barbecue sauce making it messy. The goo extends a thin tendril and filches a bit of the meat straight out of the bun before Eddie can get it to his mouth. "Don't do that, I might end up biting you," he grumbles, then takes a bite. 

The goo blinks at him. They eat another bunch of fries at once, while keeping their strange eyes fixed on him. 

The pork is only okay. He wishes he'd grabbed more napkins from the dispenser. A tendril winds around his wrist, and gently tugs his hand towards the goo. "What?" Eddie asks.

Venom pulls his hand down to them. Then they lick the barbecue sauce from his fingers. Eddie thinks he might stop breathing, because it's ninety percent terrifying and ten percent wildly thrilling in a way he can't explain. Probably mostly because there's an _alien_ licking him. 

That, and his brain is once again screaming that no one's touched him outside of a handshake for months. 

"You don't need to lick me, you can have one of the sliders," he manages to say.

 _But we like you,_ the goo replies. 

"That doesn't mean you can just lick some sauce off a guy's fingers," Eddie says, shaking off the weird feeling and laughing at the absurdity of this entire situation. "Here, try the jalapeno popper. And just so you know, it might be spicy."

He holds it out, expecting the goo to take it in a tendril and then stuff it into their weird mouth. Instead, they open their mouth and lean their head in to take a bite. Eddie watches their face-area, in case they have some sort of reaction and he needs to dump their bottle of water all over them or something, but all that happens is their eyes grow extra-wide. _Eddie! That had many tastes._

"You like it?"

_We are not sure._

Eddie laughs. "That's fair, dude." 

They finish the sliders - the goo says they're tasty enough for being dead meat, and likes the cheeseburgers the best - and Eddie eats most of the jalapeno poppers, while the goo seems very happy to get most of the fries. They look a little more round than before when the food is gone. "I hope you fit back in the jar," Eddie says. He takes a long drink of the beer. "If only for riding."

Venom ignores him talking about the jar. _Can we try your drink?_

"It's beer like yesterday... it's alcoholic - an intoxicant."

 _Yes, Eddie, we know what beer is. Have had intoxicants before,_ they reply, as though Eddie is stupid. So he carefully drips some into the bottle cap for them to try. They pick it up with thin tendrils and tip the beer into their mouth. _More?_ they ask.

Eddie pours a little bit more into the cap, and the goo drinks it. "Thoughts?" he asks, finding this all incredibly bizarre.

_We like it._

"Can you get drunk? Intoxicated? Tipsy?"

 _Yes, if we drank enough of it. The little amount you gave is nowhere near enough._ They sound like they're rolling their eyes about it. 

Eddie gives himself a second to process this, running an idle hand over the blob of them before he steals one of the remaining fries. "Would you want to get drunk?"

Venom nudges his hand. He gives them a fry. _We would have to consume more beers than you have left,_ they say, pointing a protrusion at the four bottles remaining. 

"You're the size of a shoebox," Eddie says incredulously. "Not even a shoebox." 

_Not human, Eddie,_ they remind him. 

"Huh. Clearly." He crumples up all the waxed paper wrappers and tosses them back into the sack. "What should we do now?"

The goo winds some of themselves around his fingers. _Hunt in the water?_

"You just ate all that and now you want to eat some fish? Are you that hungry?"

 _Need something that is alive. Sorry, Eddie._ They squeeze his hand gently. _Can wait a little longer, if we can't go right now._

Eddie glances up and down the beach. "I think there's still too many people around, dude. And my swim trunks are back in the motel room. How about we go back, I write for an hour, and then we go in the water? It'll be almost dark by then, and most of these people should leave."

 _This is acceptable._ The goo climbs up his arm and stretches out over his shoulders underneath his shirt. 

They stay there as Eddie takes his laptop from the separate pocket inside the backpack, plugs it in, and settles onto the motel bed with it. "Um, do you want to move so I don't squish you?" he asks, propping the pillows up against the plywood headboard.

 _We are fine,_ Venom replies. 

"If you say so." Eddie pulls the computer onto his lap and settles back, finding the motel Wi-Fi and connecting to it. He feels the goo make their little pseudo-head and nuzzle his neck for a moment, then stretch down to watch what he's doing. 

The travel mag he wrote the park piece for is interested in whatever sort of road trip things he wants to write, especially if he's got recommendations for hidden gems along the coast - good restaurants, interesting museums, specialty stores that sell weird shit. Their per-word rate is decent and they direct deposit quickly. Eddie figures getting paid to work while avoiding the Life Foundation is better than funding this whole endeavor out of his own dwindling savings. 

"How about we do... best fries along the PCH?" he asks Venom, reaching up to pat them. 

_French fries!!_

*

Venom feels like they're almost vibrating with anticipation as Eddie walks back to the beach, hotel towel in hand. It's not true dark, but there's only one car parked in the tiny lot, and wherever that person is, Eddie doesn't see them. He goes to the spot they sat before to eat dinner, and sets the towel on the large piece of driftwood. The motel key he makes sure is zipped safely in the pocket of his swim trunks. After glancing around to be sure no one is near, he strips off his t-shirt and leaves it on the driftwood as well.

"How are you going to do this?" he asks the goo. "Like, just go off on your own?"

_Yes. We have hunted in water on other planets before, Eddie. We are not entirely helpless without a host._

"I know you're not helpless -" Eddie tries not to think about the bad guy Venom ate only a couple days ago, "- I just want to be sure. You know it's saltwater, right? It's not gonna mess up your weird slime chemistry or anything?"

_Yes, we know it is saltwater, we will be fine._

Eddie wades out into the water. The goo stays on his shoulders even after he's lifted his feet up off the bottom, and is just sort of lazily floating. There's an apprehensive feeling coiled in his chest. "You're not going to get lost, right? For sure?"

Venom nuzzles their head-protrusion against the side of Eddie's face. _We won't get lost. We will only be a few minutes. There are some fish not too far from here._

With that, they slide off his body into the water, looking almost squid-like for a moment before disappearing immediately. It's too dark beneath the surface for Eddie to see them at all as they swim away. He treads water for a while, trying not to hold his breath, then turns over to float on his back and look up at the sky. He can't remember the last time he actually swam in the ocean. Or was even alone with his own thoughts in a way that didn't make him want to scream, down a beer, and turn on the television to blur it all out. 

He hopes Venom does come back. Today's been kind of fun, slightly sub-par barbecue pork sliders notwithstanding. 

A few minutes of looking up at the stars later, something cozies up to his shoulder. Eddie startles, then realizes it's the goo. "Hey, dude," he says, bobbing upright again. "Find a snack?"

 _Yes, we ate several fish, very delicious._ They snuggle up to him, and Eddie feels a distinct wave of pleased satisfaction emanating from them. _So alive._

Venom's pleasure is so strong it makes Eddie shiver as well. "Wow," he breathes, surprised at the feeling as it rushes through his body. Hot, even though the water they're in is cool. "Fuck, that's - eating live stuff makes you feel that good?"

 _If you were to bond with us, you could feel this good all the time,_ the goo all but purrs, and Eddie tenses. 

"Not happening, bud," he says firmly. "Are you done eating, can we go back in?"

They seem to hesitate, but then curl over his shoulder. _We are done._

Eddie swims close enough to the shore that he can stand again, then wades up out of the water. At the driftwood, he blots off with the towel. "You need to get dried off?" he asks the goo.

 _Mmmm, we are fine for now._

It's dark enough that they just ride on his shoulder as a blob as he crosses the highway back to the motel. "I'm gonna hop in the shower," he tells them, once they're inside the room. Remembering that Venom enjoyed the steamy warmth this morning, he asks, "You coming with?"

_Yes, please. The salt drying on us is unpleasant._

Eddie wears his trunks straight into the shower to rinse the saltwater out of them. The goo climbs down his body to settle between his feet as he shampoos his hair, and sits partly on his left foot. _Eddie,_ they say, _today was very interesting._

"Sure was." He sticks his head under the spray. Then he squints down at the goo. "So what's with the live stuff? Please don't tell me that you like it because it squirms."

They feel amused at that. _Not only the squirming, Eddie. It is the chemicals when the prey is alive. The fish did not have much - the chemical is in their brains, and fish have small brains - but it was still better than none at all._

"Huh." He goes back to rinsing the shampoo from his hair. Suddenly, he feels the goo climbing his leg. "What are you -"

They climb up his torso, then to his shoulder, and then Eddie feels tendrils working through his hair. "I, uh - okay," he mutters, at a loss. It does feel kind of good. He can't remember the last time anyone touched his scalp in any way close to this; the place he gets his hair cut barely sprays some water, much less shampoos. 

_Thank you for today,_ the goo says. Their touch firms. They press at the base of his skull and Eddie can't help his groan. _Does that make you feel nice? We feel like it makes you feel nice._

"It's - it's nice, yes." But weird. Eddie yawns under the spray, then spits out the water that pools in his mouth. "I feel like we haven't done enough for me to be this tired, but I am. Are you tired?"

 _We don't get tired like humans do,_ they reply peacefully. _But could rest._

Carefully, Eddie makes sure all the shampoo is rinsed from his hair, since Venom is still curled around his neck, then turns off the water. He dries off with the remaining clean towel. "You need to dry?" he asks the goo, holding up the towel.

_No, we are fine._

Eddie pulls on a clean pair of boxers, then stretches out on the bed. The goo sits in the gap between his arm and his ribcage and asks if that's all right. "Yeah, guess you're okay there," Eddie yawns. He turns on the television. "This is like, super basic cable."

They stretch out their little head-blob and blink their tiny white eyes at the screen. _What about that food show we watched before?_

"Sorry, dude. I think our choices are a rerun of _The Simpsons_ or an episode of _Antiques Roadshow_."

He leaves on _Antiques Roadshow_ , and falls asleep without bothering to tell the goo to go in the jar for the night.


	6. Venom Interlude 2

They tell Eddie that they won't go far away from him, but it's a lie. The ocean is wonderfully smooth and cool, and there are so many interesting things for them to eat. In the water they can move very fast. They catch and eat three mackerel almost before the school of them can change course, then slip deeper and find a thresher shark. Not as tasty nor as satisfying as the human the other night, but the thrill of live prey is there. 

Above them at the surface, their human bobs along, drifting on the calm waves. Venom is delighted Eddie has brought them on this adventure, so different from anything else they've ever done. They should have bonded with Eddie by now, used him to kill those at the laboratory who imprisoned them, and tried to find the other symbiotes who'd been abducted. But Venom cannot sense that any of the other Klyntar survived the lab. They might be the only one on this planet. It makes no logistical sense to even worry about trying to conquer alone. They're still a very long time away from a spawning cycle, and they don't think this planet would be very hospitable to new spawn. Even if Eddie probably would try to take care of them. 

They catch another mackerel and devour it whole. It feels so good to eat, it makes them quiver. Eddie tries to feed them enough, and the shrimp and tater tots are very tasty, but the chemicals are not quite right. The chocolate is closer. The clams are best, when they're _alive_. 

Eddie takes them back to the room they're staying in for the night, and lets them climb in the warm water closet with him. They sit between his feet, wondering how much longer they'll need to wait before Eddie will want to bond with them. They touch him lightly, not wanting to spook him, just one gentle tentacle looped partway around his ankle and resting themselves against his foot. The soapy water sloshes over them, rinsing off the salt from the ocean. 

Eddie is doing something to his hair, so they decide to help, to thank him for the hunting. He startles at first, but relaxes. His shoulders droop a little. Venom investigates his hair, tasting the follicles, enjoying the way the wet strands slide against their pseudoskin. The soap doesn't taste as good as Eddie himself does. Venom wants to lick Eddie's ear, but they know Eddie will be annoyed if they do, so they refrain. 

Someday, they hope. Someday.


	7. Eddie - Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The road trip continues!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More thanks to everyone who has left comments!! I appreciate it!

Eddie wakes up late the next morning, sunlight streaming in where he didn't pull the curtains tight enough. The goo is curled in a round blob next to him in the bed, and he's got an arm around them. When he rolls onto his back, squinting in the light, the sun hits them, and they make a grumbling sort of noise and press harder against his ribs. "Morning, slime," he mutters. 

_Not slime,_ they mutter back.

"Morning, blob," he tries instead, amused.

_Not a blob, Eddie,_ they grumble, flattening out over his ribcage in an annoyed stretch of inky black. _We are symbiote, you know this._

"Yeah, but it's more fun to call you slime, and watch you get all fussy." He smothers a yawn.

_We don't get fussy._

"You so do." Eddie pushes himself up on his elbows. For a cheap motel, the bed is pretty comfortable. "Shit, I slept hard. You hungry?"

_We are hungry!_ They form the little head to blink at him. _Are we traveling more today? Where are we going? It's very strange for us, traveling only to travel. Not having a destination._

Eddie hadn't thought about that yet. He rubs a hand over his face, yawning again, then says, "I figured we'd just get on the bike and ride until someplace looks interesting enough to stop, and hopefully write about. Same as we did yesterday, pretty much."

_We enjoyed going in the ocean. The fish were tasty. We do not mean to make you feel bad, but they were much, much better than your human food._

"Well, you are an alien, so I guess I'm not offended." He sits up, then swings his legs over the side of the bed. "I gotta get dressed, dude, so you need to not sit on me."

They feel displeased, but stay in the bed when he gets up. In the bathroom, he splashes some water on his face, then brushes his teeth and gets dressed. His swim trunks, rinsed of the seawater and tossed over the shower rail last night, are dry. He throws them back into the duffel, followed by his bag of toiletries. The goo bobs their head at him as they watch. "Didn't really unpack anything else," Eddie mutters. 

He offers Venom the open jar, and the goo climbs into it without complaining. Eddie zips them up into the backpack and puts it on. _Are we getting something to eat?_ they ask.

"Yeah, but I don't think there's any sort of drive-through place around here, so we might have to drive a while."

_Acceptable._

He drops the room key into the box outside the motel office, then sits on his bike checking the map on his phone, looking for the nearest fast-food restaurant. Santa Cruz is about forty minutes. They can walk around there for a while, and there's an arboretum at the UC campus that he can probably get a couple hundred words out of for the travel magazine. _Are we going to look at more trees today?_ the goo asks, and Eddie laughs. 

"Yeah, probably."

_Old ones like at that park?_

Eddie zooms around a little on the map. "There is another redwood forest we could go to," he says. 

_We like the old trees,_ Venom says. _We can't explain why. But we like them._

"Well, we could go there. Definitely another place the Life Foundation won't look for us." Eddie zips his phone into a jacket pocket, then settles the helmet on his head. "But first, breakfast."

*

In Santa Cruz, Eddie finds a nearly deserted McDonald's and parks his bike. He can't really carry a cup of coffee while riding, and he wants at least one, possibly several. He gets an assortment of breakfast sandwiches and a couple hashbrowns - the goo will probably be into the hashbrowns - and sits down in one of the booths with the backpack on the inside. The goo swirls lazily and blinks up at him when he opens it. _The food smells delicious, Eddie. Not alive, but still smells good._

"Sorry, no live stuff for breakfast." He pops the lid off the coffee so it can cool. "You're almost overflowing the jar, bud. I think we should find you something else to ride in today."

_Okay, Eddie._ They swirl around some more. _Can we have some of your coffee?_

Eddie hums. "Yeah, sure - let me see if they'll give me an extra cup, I can just say I want it to cool off faster. Hide while I'm gone."

He ducks out of the booth and the goo settles into absolute stillness, just a darkness in the backpack. The older woman working the counter gives him an extra cup without asking why he wants it; back at the table Eddie pours a little coffee into it and tucks it carefully into the elastic bottle-holder on the side of the bag. As he watches, the goo reaches a tendril down into it. _Thank you! It's sweeter than the other day._

"Yeah, I added sugar today." 

Eddie works his way through the sandwiches, giving Venom bites of everything to see what they like. The hashbrowns are a definite hit, and so are the various egg patties. They like the ham more than the sausage. The English muffin is not a hit, nor the biscuit. He gets some little jelly packets when he goes back up to buy the goo another hashbrown, and eats the biscuits with the jelly so Venom can have the eggs. "You get enough?" he asks, when everything is gone, and he's sipping his second cup of coffee.

_Yes._ They stretch a tendril out to squeeze Eddie's wrist. _Very salty._

He laughs. "Yeah, that's how they make it taste good." 

Their little tooth-filled mouth moves like they're yawning, and he sees a flicker of their tongue. "How come you have eyes and a mouth sometimes but not all the time?"

_We don't need them all the time. They are mostly an adaptation for your planet._

"You do have a lot of teeth."

It looks like they're grinning at him now. Eddie's not sure if it's cute or if it's terrifying. "Would you bite me?" he asks.

_No, Eddie. We like you._ They swirl in the jar and the eyes and mouth disappear. Eddie shrugs to himself and finishes his coffee. When it's gone, he gives the goo a drink of water, then zips the backpack up again and goes to take a leak, not wanting to have to stop on the side of some road. 

_This container is now too small,_ the goo says, as Eddie's washing his hands. 

They don't feel heavier, but they were almost up to the top of the jar. "I figured. We'll try to find something today." 

_We can't just ride on your shoulders like yesterday?_

"On the bike? I still have to wear the backpack. It wouldn't be uncomfortable for you?" Eddie frowns, and his face in the mirror frowns. Then he sees Venom's little blob-head sticking up out of the backpack. 

_No, would not be uncomfortable for us._

He shrugs. "All right."

He goes back in the stall for the goo to climb out. They nuzzle briefly at his neck, then settle across his shoulders, under his shirt and jacket. 

Carefully, he puts the backpack back on. "Feel okay?"

_We are fine, it does not bother us._

"Well, tell me if it does," he says, and feels Venom squeeze his shoulder lightly. "Okay, let's go look at some nature."

Traffic is fairly light as they head towards the UC campus. Eddie is definitely aware that the goo is there, but it's not uncomfortable in the slightest, and they feel very content - full of food and pleased that Eddie is letting them stay so close and not ride in the jar. Eddie also feels very pleasantly well-fed and well-caffeinated. _If there are no other humans nearby, can we look, too?_ the goo asks, once Eddie's paid the five bucks to get in to the gardens. _Can only sort of see what you see like this, very dim, since we are not actually bonded._

That seems reasonable. "If no one else is close, sure."

He should have figured it wouldn't be very busy, being a weekday morning. The goo pokes a small head out between Eddie's neck and the backpack strap, and he realizes that they probably blend into the strap fairly well. _We have been to many planets, but your planet is the first to care so much for trees,_ they tell him. 

Eddie pauses in his note-taking on the native California species in the entrance garden. "For real? With all the places you've gone?"

They press gently against his neck. _Maybe it's because your bodies and these plants depend on one another. But also so many of them are pretty._

"True that." 

His phone rings once with a number he doesn't know, but only once, and whoever it is doesn't leave a message. Suddenly it strikes him that Carlton Drake could track his phone without a second thought, and without any care for the law, and he almost fumbles it in his hurry to turn it off. A thin black tendril shoots out to steady it. "Thanks, buddy," he breathes. The tendril wraps around his wrist, in between his bracelets. The thin black line of it running down his arm sort of blends in with his tattoos, so he doesn't tell them to let go.

_What is it, Eddie? Your pulse is racing._

"I just realized the Life Foundation is probably tracking my phone." 

_Wrap it in foil._

"What?" Dimly, Eddie remembers seeing that on some television show once. "How do you know that?"

_We have had many hosts,_ they say, and Eddie feels something that's almost like sadness pulse from them. _Many hosts, who knew many things. One helped to build rockets._

"And now you're hanging out with me at a botanical garden." Eddie shakes his head. He takes the battery out of the phone for now, and puts the pieces in separate pockets. "Maybe there's something in the gift shop we can buy for foil on the way out."

_Potato chips!_

"You're hungry already?" he asks, then realizes the goo means he should buy chips for the foil bag. 

_We would eat them,_ the goo says, flooding amusement through him, _but yes, for the bag, Eddie._

"All right, well, hopefully taking the battery out for now is good enough to get us through here." He goes back to his note-taking, letting his brain start to work out what sort of thing he can write with this information. Probably a couple pieces of a few hundred words - the travel website likes series pieces, their readers tend to come back. And the botanical gardens here are large enough that there are probably several areas worth writing about. 

The goo is mostly quiet as Eddie jots down information, looking curiously at all the various plants, sometimes asking him a question. In the butterfly garden, they push delight at him. Eddie stops at the side of the path to let them look more. _Eddie, there are so many!_

"Yeah, dude, the sign says all these plants are the kinds that butterflies like." A small blueish butterfly flutters past his face, then lands on a clump of goldenrod. "You never saw them before now?"

_Insects here are not like other insects we have encountered. And no place before this one has cared for them for their beauty._ Again, that almost-sadness feeling. _Your planet is very different._

Eddie doesn't know what to say to that, so he lets the goo watch the butterflies for another few minutes before they continue down the path.

*

In the gift shop there's a vending machine, so Eddie gets a bag of chips for the foil. The goo also wants to look at the plants for sale. _You don't have anything growing in your apartment,_ they say, almost accusingly.

"No, I kind of suck at plants," Eddie whispers back. 

_Why?_

Why, indeed. "I don't know, I guess it was never something I gave two shits about. Annie was always the one who remembered to water the ones we had," he says, heading out of the gift shop towards the parking area. 

He stuffs a chip in his mouth, then adds, "Never really got into plants."

_We would like to grow some of these, Eddie._

"Really?" Eddie straddles the bike, then holds up a chip for the goo to eat. They take it carefully, brushing against his neck as they do. "We can't carry plants on the bike, Vee."

_What did you just call us?_

"Oh. Uh, Vee. Is that okay?" 

_Yes, it's fine._ They take the next offered chip, and crunch right next to his ear. Crumbs fall onto Eddie's shoulder, but then the goo licks them up. Their tongue flickers over his neck and no, Eddie doesn't shiver. It's not the goo licking him specifically that's making him shiver, he reminds himself, it's that no one besides the goo has touched him in months. _Eddie?_

"You're fine," he tries to reassure them. He holds up another potato chip, then eats a few more himself. When they're almost gone, he holds up the bag and lets the goo climb partway into it to lick out all the crumbs. When it's completely empty, he puts his phone inside and folds the foil around it. Then he sticks the whole deal in his pocket. "All right, ready to go? You know, even if they were tracking my phone, by the time they got here we'd still be gone."

_Are you sure?_ Venom asks, in such a way that Eddie glances around warily at the rest of the vehicles in the lot. There aren't any hulking black SUVs. Nor does he see anyone sitting in a car and watching him. 

He reaches up to stroke the goo gently for a second. "I think we're okay for now. All right, hold on tight." 

The goo does hold on, as though they've taken Eddie's instructions literally. He feels the grip of them the whole way to the State park. It's firm, but not painful in the slightest, and he finds he enjoys it. He definitely can't forget that they're there as he rides along the highway, the tall trees on either side blocking the sunlight and keeping him somewhat cool, even in helmet and jacket. 

_Hungry again, Eddie,_ the goo says, when Eddie stops for a light.

"Uh, not sure what there is around here, and you made me take my phone apart, so we can't look anything up."

_Hungry!_ They press against his shoulders. 

"All right, all right, we can drive around a little. Not like we have anything better to do."

They brush up against the back of his neck in something close to a caress. _Thank you._

Eddie huffs a laugh as the light turns green. "Don't thank me until we find a place."

Instead of taking the route into the park, he veers into the small town that's just to the west. Mostly, he sees houses, but then there's another small bar and grill, just like yesterday. He feels the goo thrill at this. _French fries, Eddie, French fries!_

"Sure, Vee." Eddie turns in and parks. It's past regular lunch hours, but the restaurant is still open. He asks for one of the patio tables, figuring it'll look less weird if he's muttering to himself outside. 

_You are not talking to yourself, you are talking to us!_ the goo shouts.

"I know," Eddie whispers under his breath. He takes the menu from the waitress with a smile. When she's gone back inside, he says, "Maybe I should get a fake telephone earpiece, so it just looks like I'm some asshole always on the phone."

_You're not an asshole, Eddie._

"Thanks. Now decide what you want for lunch."

There's an appetizer of fries topped with barbecue pork and cheese that the goo yells in his ear about, so Eddie gets that and the chicken sandwich. The patio is in a nicely shaded spot, so he leans back a little in the chair and closes his eyes once the waitress has taken his order, since he's the only one out here.

_And us!_

"Yep, and you, slime."

_We are not slime!_ They squeeze his shoulders, and Eddie grins. _You say that just so we will be upset with you._

"You're cute when you're grumpy."

He gets the distinct impression that the goo is thinking about that, and then they ask, quietly, _Do you truly enjoy our company?_

"You certainly aren't what I expected when I grabbed that jar and ran," Eddie murmurs back honestly. "But it's been nice, having someone to talk to. Someone who seems to like hanging out with me. I mean, I wouldn't be on this spontaneous road trip if not for you, but I'm glad you're along, all the same."

He realizes as he's saying it that it's all true. He _is_ enjoying the company of this sentient slime, this alien who is fascinated by butterflies and who stacks their clam shells neatly and who likes the shower. And the fact that he can feel things from the goo, and know that they're enjoying his company as well, it's - Eddie isn't entirely sure what it is, but maybe it's enough that they're both a little less lonely right now. 

The goo softly nuzzles the back of his neck, then rests their small head on his shoulder. _Thank you._

"You're okay, I guess." 

They bite his shoulder, but very gently and without teeth, clearly just teasing. _Only 'okay'? We are a thousand year-old alien who has been to hundreds of planets, Eddie. We have seen more things than we would ever be able to explain to you._

"But you like it here," Eddie murmurs. 

They press close again. _We like you, Eddie. Earth would not be so interesting and beautiful without you._

Eddie reaches up a hand, lets them nuzzle his fingers. "I think that might be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me, Vee."

_Really?_

"I mean, Annie said some pretty nice stuff, before she dumped me. And my mom always said I was special, but that's what moms are supposed to say. But you don't have any weird human baggage and you still seem to like hanging out with me, so - that means a lot to me. Even if you are vaguely sticky and you just pretended to bite me."

They push amusement towards him. _Would not_ really _bite - you are not a bad person, Eddie. We would rather eat bad people than eat you._

"Uh, thanks?"

_We would only bite if you asked,_ Venom says firmly. Then they disappear beneath his shirt, because the waitress is bringing out the smothered fries, and another Pepsi for Eddie. 

It takes him a second to remember to act normal around another human and smile up at her. "Uh, thanks."

*

_It's calm here,_ the goo says, as Eddie starts down the shortest trail in the park.

"Yeah, it does seem nice and quiet." It seems like the further they get from San Francisco, the more Eddie realizes how noisy it sometimes got. Never quite as noisy as some parts of New York City, but there was usually a definite hum. Out here in the forest, though, that hum of human civilization has all but disappeared. Eddie can hear birds call and branches rustle. The trees loom on either side of them, reaching for the sky. 

Venom nuzzles up against his neck. _So different from our old life._

"So, what - you never stopped to smell the roses? So to speak, I mean. Like, you never got a vacation from all the planet-hopping and planet-conquering?"

Venom is quiet a moment, but stays a definite presence on Eddie's shoulder. Eddie tries to look at them and can sort of see Venom's small white eyes. The tooth-filled mouth is there, too. A flash of tongue, and Venom licks Eddie's jaw. "Gross, hey, don't just lick a dude."

_Salty._

"You're so weird."

_Alien, Eddie,_ they remind him, sounding smug about it. Eddie keeps walking. He's not going very quickly at all, taking notes about the trail - God, if someone had told him five years ago that he'd be writing five hundred words at a time about random State parks, he might have clocked that person. But it pays the bills for now.

He needs to decide what to do about the Drake pictures he'd sent to Robby. If he tells Robby to go ahead and publish, Drake's going to know the pictures came from him, and likely try to chase him down twice as hard. Eddie's not sure he wants to let Venom eat any more people, no matter how bad.

_But brains are the best food,_ they say, catching his thought. _And how will Carlton Drake ever be stopped, if other humans don't find out what is happening in the Life Foundation laboratories?_

"He's got hundreds of employees, any of them could turn whistleblower," Eddie counters.

_He has already killed people, Eddie._

"I know, Vee." He reaches up a hand, and pats the goo awkwardly. "I'm worried they got to Dr. Skirth - I never heard back from her. She was the one who got me in there in the first place."

_More reason to make sure they can't hurt anyone else._

"You're right," Eddie sighs. "This might be bigger than Robby getting those lab pictures published, though. They should probably go to law enforcement and, I don't know - the fuckin' FDA or something, at the same time. There can't be a way that whatever the Life Foundation had Maria sign would hold up in court. She was a good person, but I don't think she was always in her right mind."

Venom rubs against his neck, pushing a sympathetic feeling at Eddie. He sighs again. "Sorry, didn't mean to get us all down in the dumps when we could be enjoying how nice it is out here."

_We feel better in places like this,_ they say. _Maybe it's the moisture in the air._

"That would explain why you like to hang out in the shower." He stops walking suddenly. "How much longer can you live like this, out in the open, without a host? I know you said like, three weeks before."

_We are fine for right now. You have fed us enough, and that's helped. And you care about our comfort. No one has ever done that before._

"No one, in all your thousand years?"

_Klyntar are not kind to one another,_ they say. _There were many times we barely escaped with our lives. Even among our cohort, we were looked down upon. Others almost ate us several times._

Eddie winces. "Your kind... eats one another?"

_Yes. Sometimes. If we fight in symbiote form, without a host._

Eddie tips his head against them, his turn to nuzzle. They press back, feeling pleased. _We like being with you, Eddie, even like this. We are... friends?_

He feels pleased, too. "You bet, Vee." 

They take their time on the trail; Eddie has no reason to go any faster than what he would call a 'slow meander', occasionally jotting down his thoughts in the tiny notebook. The goo stays cuddled up against his neck unless there's another human around, but they only see a few other hikers. Eddie feels a little unplugged from the world with his phone taken apart, but he can also realize that it's probably a good thing to unplug every once in a while. And he goes have Venom to talk to, instead of scrolling Twitter's trending topics to avoid thinking about anything too hard. There'd been a stretch for a while where Eddie didn't do anything but mindlessly surf the news, stewing unwashed on the couch, hoping that the next time he refreshed the Life Foundation would be on fire. Or something along those lines. 

But a few days after that, he'd caught Dr. Skirth following him into Mrs. Chen's market, clearly not trying all that hard to hide. And now he has a stolen slime hanging out on his shoulder, happily chilling among the redwoods. 

_Eddie,_ the goo says, as they approach the end of the trail, the parking lot ahead.

"Yeah?"

_If Carlton Drake's men were here, waiting for us, would you let me take over again?_

Eddie shifts the backpack on his shoulders and sighs. "I guess I wouldn't have much choice. Since they'd probably show up with something worse than tasers this time. But it's broad daylight, a public place - what do we look like when you take over?"

_We will show you,_ Venom says, and a mental picture that is very much not Eddie's own fills his mind. A monster, huge and slick black, with visible white veins over the muscles. Teeth sharper than a lion's. Eyes the same shape as what the goo forms to look at things, but a hundred times bigger. 

_We are not a monster, Eddie!_ Venom shouts, clearly catching his thought.

"I know, Vee, but there's - shit, there's a big difference between you like you are right now, and... that."

_You think together we are frightening._

"Fuck, yeah, if I was a regular person just on the street and I saw that, I'd probably shit myself," Eddie says honestly. He unlocks the helmet from the bike and settles it on his head. "I know you can't live out in the open forever but I like you like you are right now, you're cute. Even when you do make the mouth full of sharp teeth."

There's a wave of confused feelings from the goo, who's stretched out over his shoulders again. _We don't mind being like this with you, Eddie, because you are kind and you take care of us. But we're not supposed to be like this always._

Eddie says, "I know," and starts the bike. Not for the first time, the thought runs around his head that Venom wants to bond with him, specifically - him, Eddie. Not because Venom wants to take his body and use it, but because Venom _likes_ him. 

_We wouldn't look like that always, you know that, right?_ the goo asks. _You would look like Eddie. We would be a... a passenger. Almost like we are now. Only when we needed to protect us, or hunt, or take down bad guys, would we truly be Us, be Venom together._

Eddie can feel they mean Us, with the capital letter. "What's this about hunting?"

_Like we did in the ocean!_

"But it would be like, as Venom together?" He trusts the goo will know what he means by that. At the exit, he waits for a car to pass, then turns onto the highway.

_Yes. Better for hunting than our current form. Where are we going now?_

"Not sure. We can ride for a while, then stop for dinner and find another motel, maybe by the ocean again." Eddie pauses, concentrating on driving for a few minutes. Then he asks, "So, uh - if you and I did do this bonding thing, would you always have to stay in my body? You couldn't be like this ever?"

They do something like a hum. _We could. A small part of us would stay in you, to maintain the bond - it would not be good to leave you completely and then re-bond. It would hurt us both. But we could separate from you partway, yes. Then we could eat the live fish without disgusting you so much._

They push amusement at him as they say that. "Yeah, ha ha," Eddie replies, but he's grinning behind the faceplate.


	8. Eddie - Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: this chapter is not very safe for work. :-D

Eddie wakes with a gasp, confused at first at the unfamiliar bed, before he remembers he's not at home, but in a sort of dingy motel. And his dick is hard. He'd been dreaming some faceless pleasure, grinding against someone, maybe in a club. He groans into the pillow and rolls onto his back, relieving the pressure of his cock pressed at an uncomfortable angle against the mattress, but that doesn't do anything for his actual erection. He blinks in he dim light, then grabs for his phone, wondering what time it is. 

Just past seven. He flops back onto the bed. He pushes his hand into his boxers, then remembers the goo. They'd been on the other pillow like a lump when Eddie fell asleep, still watching whatever movie was on motel HBO, a tendril stretched out to touch Eddie's arm so they could tell him their thoughts on whatever was happening. 

He tries to scoot out of the bed now, figuring he'll go deal with this in the shower and then maybe get another couple hours' sleep, but he's stopped by Venom's voice in his head. _Eddieeeeee. Where are you going?_

Their tendril is wrapped around Eddie's wrist. "Nowhere, just the bathroom," he mumbles.

_You feel... hot. Your pulse is racing. Are you sick?_

"No, I'm okay. Can you let go?" 

They fix their little white eyes on him. _What's wrong? You feel strange, Eddie, and your face is turning red._

"I just... I need to go rub one out, dude." He feels heat flooding his face as he says it. Telling a blob of slime he needs to go jerk off. "Can you let me go so I can take care of this?"

He gestures vaguely at his crotch. This is embarrassing enough, he feels like he should be flagging, but he's not. 

_Oh,_ Venom says.

(Oh? What does _that_ mean? Does the goo know what masturbation is?) 

_Eddie -_ the goo starts, but Eddie pulls away from them and stumbles into the bathroom, closing the door behind himself. Then he jams his hand back into his shorts and grabs his cock, barely caring that he's being rougher with himself than he normally likes. It feels so good; he hasn't done this since way before Venom arrived in his life. 

_Eddie!_

He jumps, then realizes through an honestly dizzying wave of adrenaline that the goo has stretched a tendril under the bathroom door to touch him. He groans. "Could you give me, like, five minutes alone? Not even. Three minutes alone."

The goo wants to know why.

"Because I need to do something that humans do alone, okay?"

_We know humans eliminate waste products, Eddie, that is not news._ They squeeze more of themselves underneath the door. 

"Oh, God." Eddie thunks his forehead against the wall. That sort of helps. Maybe he'll just hit his head on the wall for now, then take a cold shower and jerk off back at home, when the goo is busy eating an entire bag of potato chips or something. He turns on the shower. Then he scoops the goo up from the gross floor and sets them on the sink. "Just - stay here. You don't need to be so fucking clingy."

They seem to shrink back, becoming perfectly round with no tendrils reaching for him, and their eye-spots disappear into the black mass. Eddie realizes after a second that he's made them feel bad. "Vee - buddy - look, humans have a sex thing they need to handle sometimes, and we like to do it alone. Or with other humans, but right now, all I got is my own hand. I wasn't trying to make you feel like I don't like you anymore, okay? Do you even know what sex is?"

He touches his fingertips to them gently.

_We know what human sexual reproduction is, saw those things in a previous host._ They sound annoyed. _We did not think... you do not have a human partner. We're sorry we didn't understand that you wanted to self-pleasure, we only didn't want you to leave us alone when we were comfortable resting together in the bed._

Eddie snorts. "Self-pleasure, that sure makes it sound stupid."

The goo recoils again. "Hey, no, I wasn't calling you stupid," Eddie hurries to say. "I should have just said plainly right away why I wanted to be alone. I just didn't think you'd get it. I guess we're both sorry." 

_Take your stupid cold shower, Eddie._

Eddie's erection has completely faded during this conversation, so he figures he doesn't need the cold water anymore and turns it up to a more comfortable temperature. He'll let the grumpy slime lump decide for themselves if they want to come sit in the warm shower. He gets in once it's steaming, and starts washing his hair. He expects Venom to climb in after a minute, but they don't. 

Eddie goes through his entire routine, and the goo doesn't appear. When he pushes the curtain aside and grabs a towel, they're no longer on the sink. He doesn't see them anywhere in the bathroom. "Vee?" he calls, hurriedly scrubbing the towel over his hair before wrapping it around his waist. "Vee?"

He finds them stuffed in the jar, a still black mass. "Venom? You okay?" he asks. His heart trips in his chest. He cups a hand around the jar. 

They swirl, but don't form eyes to look at him. "Hey," Eddie murmurs, feeling horrible all of a sudden. "Are you mad at me? I wasn't trying to make you mad. And I wasn't calling you stupid, okay? Clearly, you know a shit ton of stuff about all sorts of things I've never heard of. You're not dumb."

_We don't want to talk to you right now,_ they say. 

Eddie draws back, stung. He swallows against the sudden dryness of his mouth. "Okay." 

They swirl again, in a way that feels like they're turning their back on him. "Okay," Eddie repeats. "I'll just - yeah."

He gets dressed in silence. He's definitely awake now, so going back to sleep for a few more hours is out of the picture. He might as well write until check-out time. He grabs his laptop and settles on the bed with all the pillows behind his back. 

He gets an hour's worth of work done before he needs coffee. The motel lobby apparently offers some, so he jams his feet in his shoes and eyes the goo, wondering if he should take them with. They're still ignoring him. He just grabs the room key and goes. 

There's no one in the motel lobby except the clerk, who looks up long enough to say good morning, then immediately goes back to the newspaper. Eddie fills a styrofoam cup to the brim with coffee. After a moment's internal debate, he grabs one of the packaged muffins, says thanks, and walks back to his room. He puts the wrapped muffin - chocolate chip - down next to Venom's container and goes back to his writing. 

He's emailed in two rough drafts and is working on a third when he hears cellophane crinkling. He looks up to see the goo hanging halfway out of the jar, tendrils opening the little bag. They get it open after a couple tries. He watches them retreat back into the jar holding a chunk of muffin. It disappears into the inky blackness. Eddie feels an odd twinge and realizes he misses the sight of the goo shoving food into their weird mouth, it was always sort of funny. But if they want to be grumpy and sulk in the jar, fine. They can sulk in the jar. Eddie can get some more work done and not have to answer questions every other minute. 

After another half an hour, the silence is too much. He saves what he's working on and checks his email once more. There's one from the property management company, saying his door has been fixed. And one from Anne, saying she swung by the building and it was still standing, and that she hopes he's enjoying his road trip, that she thinks it'll do him good. Eddie frowns at the screen - what's that supposed to mean? - but remembers the level of moping he'd been at for a while. 

He finishes the coffee left in the cup, then goes into the bathroom to rinse it out and fill it with water for the goo. They still won't look at him as he approaches, but they've eaten the whole muffin. "Hey, Vee, buddy," Eddie starts. "We're going to have to go soon, so I'm going to have to put your jar in the backpack in a minute. Did you want some water before I do that?"

A tendril extends and dips into the cup, but no face forms. Eddie frowns. "Are you really still mad at me for shutting you out of the bathroom?"

The tendril flicks water at him. 

"That's not nice, dude." 

They slosh against the sides of the nearly overflowing jar, then swirl - still angry, Eddie decides. He dumps out the rest of the cup of water in the bathroom sink, then refills the plastic bottle he bought yesterday from the tap. He tucks it into the holder on the backpack, then adds his laptop to the separate slot, and then finally the jar. The goo doesn't say anything, but the eyes squint at him. "We're hitting the road," Eddie tells them. He zips the backpack, wiring the tabs together to leave a gap for the goo to see out of. 

"I don't even know where we're going today," he says, after the room key's been dropped off and he's bungee'd the duffel to the back of the bike. "Let's stick to the coast - it's cooler."

_We don't care,_ the goo mutters.

"You do care. If we're by the coast, you can hunt in the ocean." 

_You would take us to hunt in the water again?_

"Yeah, why not?" 

They drive through Monterey, and Eddie stops to see the wetland preserve in case it's worth writing about. A tendril stretches up out of the backpack and pokes his neck. _Eddie, we don't want to be in the jar anymore. Too small._

"Maybe you shouldn't have been so grumpy, then. If we go on one of the trails in here, are you going to try to eat the frogs?"

There's a distinct thrill from the goo. _Yes!_

The mental picture is funny, but they'd probably get arrested, and Eddie would feel bad anyway if Venom ate something that was an endangered species. Okay, no wetland preserve for now. "Sorry, but it's illegal to mess with the frogs. How about if we get an early lunch first? Then you can get out of the jar. But we're just getting human food for now. No hunting until tonight."

The tendril brushes through his hair. _That is acceptable._

Eddie drives around a little, and eventually finds an In n Out with a park next door. It's probably not great that he's eating greasy takeout food all the time, but that's a problem for Future Eddie, and not Road Trip Eddie. He gets two Double Doubles, two orders of fries, and a chocolate shake. _Only one ice cream drink, Eddie?_ the goo asks, as they wait for their food.

"Yeah, we can share," Eddie whispers back. 

There are a bunch of picnic tables at the park next door, and none of them are occupied. Eddie picks the one furthest from all the others and unwraps the takeout. The goo climbs out of the backpack and onto the table, where they sit in a lump, watching. A tendril stretches out to touch his arm so they can talk. "How are you going to eat that?" he asks Venom, once the goo's burger and fries are open next to them, wanting to see what they do.

Tendrils grab several French fries and jam them into the tooth-filled mouth. Slowly, like they're mocking him. Eddie shakes his head and takes a bite of his burger. He wonders if people who've grown up with In n Out find it so delicious, or if it's just because he's not from California. 

_You did not always live here, Eddie?_ the goo asks, catching the thought.

"No, I'm from back East. Uh, the other side of the country. New York City."

_What is New York City like?_

Eddie takes a second to think about how to answer that in a way that will make sense to the goo. "Bigger, busier, and noisier than San Francisco," he says. He watches Venom's tendrils reach out and carefully pick up the hamburger. "Are you really going to -"

Their head leans forward and they bite the sandwich, growling a little as they do. Eddie wasn't aware their mouth could get bigger. He stares at them as they devour it in five or six bites, all while sauce drips down their tendrils. "I was not expecting that," he mutters. 

They lick their tendrils clean with their weirdly long tongue, then stretch their head towards Eddie's burger. He jerks it away. "No! Hey, mine."

The goo floods amusement towards him, flicks their tongue out to lick his cheek, then starts going to town on their fries.

*

"I guess we should start heading north again," Eddie tells the goo, drinking a bottle of Big Red outside a gas station on the way to Fresno.

 _If you say so, Eddie._ They tap the bottle with a thin tendril. _Let us try!_

"We could stay one more night somewhere around here, but I probably shouldn't spend any more money on motels, no matter how crusty." He moves the bottle so that Venom, currently a little head next to Eddie's own, can dip a tendril into the soda. "It's really sweet, dude. Haven't had one since I was a kid on a road trip."

Their eyes grow wide. Eddie thinks he might love that about them. The thought is startling, that he could possibly feel so strongly about this blobby alien now snuggled up against him. 

_Eddie!_

"What? Yeah, I told you it was sugary." Eddie takes another sip, then offers it to the goo once more before screwing the lid on tightly and putting it in the backpack. He tossed out the too-small jar the last time they'd stopped, after Venom refused to go in it again.

They press against his neck. _We like riding the motorcycle with you like this._

They've been draped over his shoulders under his shirt, with tendrils snaking down his arms. The two of them have been riding for a little over an hour this last stretch, and Eddie keeps thinking he should be too hot, with a living creature pressed to him, then a t-shirt _and_ a jacket. But he's stayed cool, and wonders if that's the goo's doing. It seems likely. 

"You want to walk around this little town for a while? I need a break from the bike."

_That is acceptable._

He wonders if they really could stop him if something _wasn't_ acceptable. Possibly, if it was something actually detrimental to their well-being. Would they take over his body to save themselves? Eddie figures that were it other way around, and the situation was something like, he had to either leave them in traffic or get run over by a semi himself, he'd do it. The thought makes him feel slightly queasy.

Venom licks his cheek, just lightly. _Stop thinking bad thoughts._

"How do you know what I'm thinking?"

_We don't know exactly what you're thinking, only that it makes you feel bad._

"That's -" Eddie stops, unsure what to say. He lifts a hand to cup over them, and turns his head so he can press a gentle kiss to their slick surface. 

They push a pleased feeling at him. _That was nice, Eddie. Another?_

He gives them another quick peck, feeling pleased in return. "Humans can't help but think bad stuff sometimes."

_We know._

"You can't be out while we walk around, okay?" 

_Yes, understand._ They melt back entirely beneath his shirt. Eddie leaves his bike in the motorcycle parking area of the station and heads up the street, or down the street maybe, towards what looks promisingly like a cluster of businesses. It's not far, and it feels good to walk for a while. 

_We wish we could look, too,_ Venom says. _Is there nature here for you to write about some more?_

"Don't think so." Eddie hooks his thumbs in his jacket pockets, going slowly. "There's a post office and a car repair shop so far. A library across the street."

He stops to look at the display in the window a thrift store. Records are always tempting, but not something he wants to carry on the bike. He goes in anyway, just to enjoy the cooler air, and wanders around the shelves. Places like this always have that distinctly dusty smell, like old books, even when there aren't any immediately nearby. 

He finds some a few displays away. One shelf is all outdated encyclopedias - why even bother trying to sell those? - but on another are titles he vaguely remembers from literature classes in college. "You guys have school, on - what was it - Klyntar?"

_Yes, Klyntar. By school you mean - formalized learning sessions? No, our kind does not have school. We are spawned knowing what we must know as symbiotes, and absorb other knowledge from those we bond with._

There's a strange note to Venom's voice, one Eddie doesn't think he's heard before, and a sad sort of feeling is emanating from them. He changes the subject. "Spawned, huh? Do you need to find another symbiote to have little slime babies with?" 

_Not slime, Eddie!_

Eddie grins to himself: one goo, successfully distracted. He crouches down to look at what's on the bottom shelf. Mostly old atlases, a birding guide or two. 

_Our kind does not reproduce like humans. If conditions are favorable and we have consumed enough of the correct nutrition, we can choose to bud. It does not happen often._

"How are there enough of you to go out conquering planets, then?" 

Venom pushes amusement at him. _Our lifespan is ten times the ordinary human lifespan, Eddie, if not more._

"I guess that makes sense." Eddie digs out a slim book purporting to map the stars and pages through it. 

He feels the goo form a little head to look. _Ugh, Eddie, that is all wrong!_

"Well, it is from 1956," he laughs. 

_If you buy that we will bite you,_ the goo threatens, stretching out tendrils to push the book out of Eddie's grasp. 

"You're the size of a VCR, I'd like to see you try." Eddie grins to himself, sliding the book back on the shelf as Venom growls in his head. "Okay, okay - a little bigger than a VCR."

Tendrils poke into his armpits, making him squirm and nearly knock over the shelf. "Hey!"

Venom pushes amusement at him. "Yes, you're very funny," Eddie mutters. He stands up. "Should we see if there's something in here that will replace the jar, in case you need to ride in the backpack?"

_Fine._

He can tell they're not pleased about the idea, but he should have something, just in case. He wanders around the thrift store, looking for a container that's bigger than the goo's now-garbage jar, but still mostly lightweight. Most everything vessel-shaped he sees is old glassware, the sort of collectible glasses that Burger King gave with kids' meals when he was a kid. Toward the back of the store, he finds a plastic pitcher like his mom used to make Kool-Aid in. It looks big enough that Venom would fit, but it could still be zipped up in the backpack. 

Eddie figures if it doesn't work out, or the goo hates it, he's only out two dollars. 

_Why can't we just ride on your shoulders, Eddie?_ Venom asks, swiping a tendril behind Eddie's ear. It tickles. 

"You might not want to get rubbed by the backpack straps if we're on the bike for hours," Eddie answers. "I'm not saying you have to be in it all the time, okay? Just so that we have something if you need it." 

They squeeze at his shoulders. _We guess that's okay._

Eddie rides northwest from Fresno until he gets to a highway he thinks should take him mostly west, wanting to get back on the One eventually. This route takes him through another state park, and he feels Venom poke a little head out of the neck of his jacket to watch from underneath Eddie's ear. _Your world remains very beautiful, Eddie. We like it,_ they say. 

Eddie just doesn't have the heart to say that there are plenty of ugly places on Earth, too.

_We require liquid,_ they tell him a while later. _Can we stop?_

"Sure, next gas station I see."

The Chevron he rolls into has a fresh juice bar, so Eddie gets himself a berry something mix along with the goo's bottle of water, and they sit straddling the bike in the parking lot. The juice is good, although Eddie can't help but feel it's too little too late, given all the fast food he's eaten the last few days. The goo sticks a tendril into the cup without asking, and he frowns down at them. "Dude."

_Don't know if we like that._

"What, too healthy for you?"

_It doesn't have the nutrition we need. Some of your human foods have been very tasty, but eating is not usually about the food for us, but the chemicals it's made of. Also this liquid reminds us of dirt._

Eddie has to laugh at that. "If you know what the chemicals are, I could look them up, the next time we're on the computer."

_This is acceptable._ They dip the tendril into their water. _We like the chemical you produce when you ride the motorcycle._

That one takes Eddie a minute. "I - when I ride the bike?"

_The excitement chemical!_ they say, and flick water at his face. 

"Oh, adrenaline? How can you tell I'm producing it when we're not - you know." 

_It's in your sweat, Eddie._

That makes more sense. "So you're getting a chemical you need just by being close to me?"

_Yes._ The goo nuzzles up under his chin, and Eddie lifts a hand to stroke them gently. _Have you decided what to do about the Life Foundation?_

"No, not yet. I mean - Robby _should_ get the photos published, it's only right, but they'll know it's me who leaked them. And I don't think Drake will stop trying to get you back until he's hauled off to jail." He finishes off his juice.

_Or dead._

"Are you... going to kill him?"

They push annoyance at him. _Could not, like this._

Eddie dips his chin and kisses the top of their head. "I like you like this. Even if you do eat live animals."

_We can go hunting in the ocean tonight?_

"Sure, one more motel night. Then we see if Drake's goons have fucked up my apartment, or worse." He gets up to toss the empty cup in the garbage, and the goo disappears under his shirt again.

*

The goo is exceptionally pleased after catching several large fish that night, eating the brains as Eddie floats in the water, watching the stars. _Eddieeddieeddie!_ they say, oozing up onto his chest as he continues to float. _We only ate two fish, but they were much bigger than last time. More brain matter._

"Ugh. I mean, I'm happy you're happy -" and they are definitely feeling good, Eddie can feel it just as strongly as last time, wow, it's making him shiver," -but I don't need to hear about the brains."

_Squishy!_

"Stop, you're just trying to gross me out." He cups a hand over them, and their weird tongue darts out to lick his chin. 

_You are being a loser about the brains._

"Brains are gross," Eddie replies, not so much because he's truly grossed out, but because he really likes teasing Venom. "Live fish, also gross. Slippery."

_They are more scared when we eat them alive. They recognize 'oh no, something is biting me'! And they are terrified. It is delicious._

"Disgusting," Eddie sing-songs. 

_Delicious!_ In the near dark, Eddie can see the goo grinning at him, with all their little sharp teeth. _We will bite Eddie, also delicious!_

He knows they don't mean it at all. "I'mma bite you," he replies, showing the goo his teeth. 

_Human teeth are too blunt. Loser teeth._

"Hey!"

The goo pushes more amusement and happiness at him, then nuzzles against his hand, so he strokes them again for a moment before starting towards the shore. "We should probably go in, I'm getting a little chilly." 

_Can we get snacks from the machine?_

There's a vending machine in an alcove around the corner from tonight's motel room, and Venom is fascinated. They've already made Eddie stop to look at it twice. He's pretty sure they've decided exactly which things they want to eat out of it. "You just ate the fish brains! And I don't think I have any dollar bills or quarters at the moment, buddy. Sorry."

_That's okay, we don't need money._ They push a perfect mental image of themselves climbing into the machine to obtain a bag of sour cream and cheddar potato chips. Eddie is both impressed and afraid of their no-nonsense criminal tendencies. 

"That's stealing, Vee."

_Human rules are stupid. Should not be stealing to take what we need to eat._

Eddie laughs into the towel he's drying off with. "Okay, first of all, I doubt you _need_ potato chips -"

_We need potato chips!_

" -and second, everything costs money. Welcome to capitalism, bud."

_We will just take them,_ the goo grumbles. Eddie puts his cheap flip-flops back on and heads for the motel, about a block down the road. He figures Venom could ooze themselves underneath the door and creep down to the machine, but would have a hard time getting the bag of chips back inside in the room. Although he wouldn't put it past them just to sit in the machine and eat everything they could. 

_What are you thinking about, Eddie? It feels like you are thinking something funny._

"I'm thinking about you climbing into the machine, eating everything inside, and then getting trapped inside because you're a big blob and can't fit back through the little door." 

_We would NOT get trapped!_

Eddie unzips the pocket he's got the key in and fishes it out. "Just a round blob of slime, banging on the plexiglass, begging to be set free of the snack machine." He unlocks the motel room door, laughing.

_You are making fun of us!_

"'course I am." The mental image is hilarious. 

The goo forms several tendrils and pats his face. _Eddie if we did get stuck, would you rescue us?_

"'course I would." 

They wiggle down from his shoulder onto his chest, a whole lot of tendrils extended, and after a second Eddie realizes that they're performing something like a hug. He puts his arms around them in response, and they squeeze at him tighter. _Hold us close, Eddie._

"Uh - what," Eddie breathes. "Yeah, okay."

Their small head is tucked against his neck, so Eddie strokes his hand over it, then gives them a kiss. They push happiness at him again. _Shower? The salt is drying on us._

"Yeah, good plan." 

Instead of sitting between his feet again, the goo balances on Eddie's shoulder, and insists on washing his hair for him. "I mean, sure, but -"

_We want to do it, so you feel nice,_ the goo replies. They stretch out a flat-shaped tendril for Eddie to squeeze the shampoo onto, then start working it into his hair with what feels like a dozen more tendrils. Eddie closes his eyes and sighs. It does feel nice. He could fall asleep standing up right here in this little box of a shower. 

_Don't fall asleep, you'll fall down,_ Venom says, even as they rub Eddie's scalp enough that he feels like melting is a possibility.

"I won't fall down." 

The tendrils move to his shoulders, then poke into his armpits. _Lift your arms, Eddie._

"Uh, I can wash myself, Vee." 

_We know,_ the goo says, and pokes him again. _We like being close to you like this._

Eddie doesn't quite get soap in his eyes from blinking suddenly in surprise, but it's close. He sticks his head under the spray to rinse the shampoo out, swallowing hard. This should be weird, and it _is_ weird, but part of him wants to just let the goo do whatever they want. Anticipation is thrumming in his veins. 

_You are making a different chemical._

"What?"

The goo licks the back of his neck, and Eddie shivers again. _Almost like the one you make when you're scared. You're not scared of us right now, are you, Eddie?_

"No, just -" he struggles for the right words to explain. He feels Venom shift slightly on his shoulder. "What you want to do right now, and the way you're saying it, it's something that humans usually only do with people they're in a romantic relationship with. Not just with their friends." He doesn't say: _friends don't shower with friends in general_.

"And uh, friends don't usually lick their friends," he adds.

They nuzzle behind his ear, making him shake a little at the feeling that dances up his spine. "Vee, seriously," Eddie says, loudly over the sound of the spray. He should put his foot down about this sort of touching. And firmly. 

Venom ripples against his skin. _You don't want us to be close?_

Eddie braces his arm on the wall, motel mold be damned. He does, that's the thing. He wants to lift his arms and let Venom do as they please, but at the same time, the rational part of his brain is screaming that this is crazy. Venom is a living being with thoughts and the ability to speak and conscious wants that they can very clearly articulate as being different from their survival needs; it's not like Eddie's brought a pet lizard to hang out in the shower with him. But that doesn't mean they understand anything having to do with human sexuality, and Eddie's already trying not to hyperventilate about getting a little turned on just by the gentle touches. He's going to chalk it up to the whole no human contact for weeks thing. 

_Eddie?_ Another nuzzle behind his ear. 

"Sorry, Vee, thinking."

_You need that much thought to decide if we can touch you?_

"It's complicated," Eddie tries to say. 

Tendrils slide around his ribs and squeeze gently. _How many times do we have to remind you that we are ten times older than any human will ever live, and have had many hosts? We might not reproduce in a sexual way, but we do have an understanding of such things. We do feel pleasure, and understand what it is when our hosts feel pleasure._

Eddie thinks about how good they feel when eating the live fish, and Venom ripples against his back. _So it is not that complicated at all, Eddie. It is only touch._

"Okay," Eddie sighs. There's no one here but them. There's no one to know what Eddie lets Venom do. "Okay, Vee. You can… you can do what you were doing before."

A tendril shoots out to grab the tiny bar of hotel soap. _Arms!_

Eddie closes his eyes and lifts his arms. 

The goo happily - and Eddie can feel how strongly they're pushing the feeling at him - soaps under his arms, all over the rest of his arms, and down his chest. It tickles when the tendrils run over his ribs, and he squirms, trying not to laugh. 

_Feel okay, Eddie?_ the goo asks.

"Yeah." 

The tendrils are around his waist now, and then soaping down one leg. Eddie shivers when they go over the soft skin at the back of his knee. "Do you need to wash, too?" he asks, as they work their way up his other leg, a flowing black mass with a little bar of soap. 

_You want to wash us?_

"Sure - sure, if you want." 

They cling to his hip. _Your reproductive organ is in a different state than usual._

"Whoo, yeah, I was pretty much trying to ignore that," Eddie admits. "My dick's kind of a traitor."

_You want to touch it - your dick._

Eddie exhales strongly and looks up at the motel ceiling. Maybe the water will suddenly go cold. The goo squeezes his hip and says, _We will leave the shower if you want to… jerk off, as you put it the other day. We don't want to make you uncomfortable._

"More like I don't want to make you uncomfortable," Eddie replies. 

Amusement floods into him from the goo, very strongly. _You couldn't make us uncomfortable about this even if you tried, Eddie._

"Oh, really..." He runs a hand over them, then wraps it around his cock. "Oh, hell."

If he closes his eyes, he can almost forget that Venom is there, except for the weight of them on his hip, and the pleased feeling radiating from them. Eddie closes his eyes tighter. With his other hand braced on the wall, he strokes his cock. He doesn't bother taking his time. It's been long enough since he did this last. He feels like it's almost perfunctory, except for the the slight shake in his knees and the thunderstorm in his head chanting at him to hurry up, to get to those few seconds of blind and singular pleasure.

He doesn't move for a minute afterward, letting the water rinse the evidence away. _Is that it?_ Venom asks.

Eddie chokes out a laugh even as he feels himself blush again. "Sorry to disappoint you."

_We are not disappointed, just thought after all that talk, that the self-pleasuring would last longer._

"When it's just a guy in a shower, we don't drag it out." Eddie picks up the soap and rubs his hands together with it under the spray, then squeezes his sudsy hands over the goo. 

_Eddie!_

"You said you wanted to get washed, and the hot water's gonna run out eventually." 

They seem to melt slightly, and Eddie scoops them up. _No one has ever done something like this for us before,_ they say as he rubs the soap over all their blobby bits and the random tentacles that extend. He has to concentrate on keeping hold of them, since the soap makes them slippery.

"Really, in a thousand years?" 

_We're not usually in the company of non-Klyntar in this state,_ they say. 

Eddie steps entirely under the spray again to rinse the soap off Venom, feeling how content this makes them feel. "All right, everyone's clean and feeling good, and we've been in the shower way too long. My fingers are prunes."

The goo makes a head to look at his fingers, then licks. _Not prunes, only fingers._

"Ha, ha, you're such a joker."

They push amusement at him again. Eddie leans out of the shower to grab another of the thin motel towels and starts drying off. "I don't know about you, but I'm beat," he says. "I'm getting into some shorts and going to sleep."

_Snacks!_

Eddie sighs. He's probably not getting out of this one. "All right, you can steal one bag of chips. One bag!"


	9. Eddie - Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: Venom eats a bad guy in this chapter.

When Eddie wakes up, the goo is next to him in the bed, and it takes Eddie a moment of blinking at them to realize they're the wrong color. A sickly sort of grey. "Vee?" he asks, carefully scooping them up close to him. "What's wrong with you?"

They stir, but it seems weak. No eyes nor mouth, just a blob. _Have been... out in your atmosphere... too long. Thought... we were doing well, after eating last night. Not doing well._

Eddie strokes a hand over them. Unease winds up in his belly. "How can I help?"

_Need to bond._

"I figured you were going to say that," he sighs, stroking them gently again. 

_Eddieeddie... best option. Would be best host for us... we know._

Eddie knows this. He also knows he can't run from Drake's goons forever, and that the best chance the both of them have against Venom getting kidnapped back to the laboratory is for them to bond. But his mind can't help but run through a dozen different scenarios where having Venom talking in his head would be at best weird, and at worst, a hindrance. 

_We can be quiet… Eddie… if we need to be quiet._

"You could just force me, but you won't," he says.

 _Better if you want it._

Eddie hugs them close, feeling how tired they are. They'll die if he doesn't say yes, and he feels lightheaded just thinking about it. There's no one he can give them to, to fix them, to make them better. They'll die.

"Okay," he breathes. "Okay. What do I have to do?"

They stretch a little head up to look at him. Even their small face looks tired, somehow. No toothy mouth for Eddie to make fun of. _Yes, you will bond with us?_

"Yes. Do I need to do anything?"

The goo doesn't answer. Instead, they melt beneath his skin with a strange sensation, something between ticklish and being jolted with electricity. His vision goes blurry for a moment, and then his stomach starts to roll.

"Vee, I'm going to be sick," he gasps out, and stumbles for the motel room's tiny bathroom. At least it isn't far. He falls to his knees in front of the toilet, registering that this is happening, but feeling somehow outside of it - it should hurt, the heaviness with which he'd hit his knees on the tile. The clench of his stomach _does_ hurt, but in a slow motion sort of way. Eddie feels the cold flash that always precedes actual vomiting, and then -

 _sorryeddie,_ Venom says when it's over, sounding the same as they did when they were outside Eddie, the same rumble in his head. _Our systems must adjust to working together. It will take some time._

"So I'm just going to keep barfing for however long that is?"

_No. This was just necessary to expel what you ate before we joined, potato chip snacks at midnight. Now when you eat, it will be for both of us._

"Eating for two, like I'm pregnant," Eddie grumbles. He wipes his face with some toilet paper, then flushes it all away. "So I'm probably going to be hungry in like ten minutes," he adds, squeezing toothpaste from the little travel tube onto the little travel toothbrush. 

_Yes, more than likely._

Eddie brushes his teeth and washes his hands, then squints at himself in the mirror. He doesn't look any different, he thinks. Venom feels amused at that. _Of course you don't look any different, Eddie._

He does feel like the blood is pounding very strongly in his veins. "I feel like I should look different."

_There is no reason for us to take over at the moment. You should change your shorts._

Eddie looks down. There's vomit on his boxers. "Yeah."

"So are you feeling better?" he asks the goo, as he gets dressed for the day. The boxers he just throws away, not worth bringing home. There's a strange ticklish sensation along his shoulder so he looks up into the mirror, and sees a black mass oozing up out of his skin, then watches a small head form up out of the mass with the goo's same eyes and mouth that Eddie's used to. "Hi."

 _Hi, Eddie._ They nuzzle his neck. Their pseudoskin is shining. _Yes, we feel much better, but we will need to eat soon._

"Okay. Me food or you food?" He checks his watch; it's almost ten. They should probably pack up and check out. 

Venom grins their tooth-filled grin. _Brains!_

"No brains," Eddie groans. "How about breakfast? Eggs, sausage, potatoes…" 

_Tater tots!_

"Hash browns are pretty close, like what we ate at the McDonald's. You'll like them." He collects his toiletries back into the bag, then tosses the whole thing in the duffel. His gaze falls on the Kool-Aid pitcher sitting in the open backpack. "Guess we didn't need that after all."

 _We told you, stupid._ They sound smug about it. Eddie feels tendrils snake around his waist and squeeze - the goo's version of a hug again? _Happy to be with you, Eddie._

That's oddly sweet. "Thanks, bud."

The tendrils stay wrapped around his waist as he checks out of the motel and gets on the bike. "Are you still going to eat my adrenaline?" he asks, settling the helmet on his head.

 _Yes!_

"Is it going to do anything weird to me, if you eat it as I produce it?"

_Stupid question, Eddie._

"Hey, I don't know, I've never shared my body with an alien before." He starts the bike and kicks off. There's a restaurant a few blocks back that they passed yesterday that looks like the sort of family diner place that always has good breakfast. 

He wonders where Venom is, inside of him. He feels sort of generally sore, but he doesn't think there's a particular place in his body that actually feels heavier, or stretched, or uncomfortable - but they have to be somewhere. He hopes they didn't eat any of his organs or anything to make room for themselves. "Where are you, in me?" he asks.

_Everywhere. And no, we did not eat any of your organs. They look very tasty, Eddie, but we don't want to hurt you. We would feel bad if we ate something important._

"Uh, thanks, I think?"

_Liver looks delicious. Pancreas looks delicious. Your lungs are very healthy._

"Yeah, definitely don't eat any of those. Let's get an omelet instead." He turns into the restaurant's parking lot. As he turns off the engine, hunger floods through him again, even stronger than before. "We're going in right now, promise."

The inside of the restaurant looks exactly as he pictured it would. A woman probably his mom's age shows him to a booth, and asks what he wants to drink. "Coffee, please. And a hot chocolate, if you've got it."

_For us?_

"For you," Eddie confirms in a whisper, once the waitress has walked away. "What do you want to eat?"

 _We think we could regrow your liver if we ate some,_ Venom says, but they don't sound serious about it.

"Definitely not. What do you want to get that's on this menu?"

_We can't read, Eddie. Or we mean, we can't read yet - we can learn from your memories. But not this quickly._

"All right. So you've got your pancakes, your waffles, your eggs Benedict..." He whispers off the highlights, doing his best to ignore how strong the hunger has gotten. His stomach hurts with it. "Are we always going to be this hungry, Vee?"

_Not always. Adjustment._

The waitress returns with his two beverages. Eddie orders an omelet he's certain will be overstuffed, bacon, and French toast. The waitress doesn't blink, just says she'll be back in a minute with some syrup. 

_Here, Eddie, put our hot chocolate on the inside part of the table, and put your hand by it,_ the goo says. 

Eddie does. Tendrils flow out of his wrist, then Venom's little head forms under his palm. They flash their tiny tooth-filled mouth at Eddie, who grins back, then stick their tongue in the hot chocolate. "You're an actual brain-eating alien, how is this so cute?" Eddie whispers at them.

The goo flicks their tongue around to lick his fingers. "Nevermind, gross."

Eddie drinks his coffee black so that he doesn't have to try to open one of the little creamer cups one handed, watching Venom stick their face into the hot chocolate. There's a bit of whipped cream on top, and now it's on their face. "Slime, seriously," he mutters. 

_Not slime!_

Eddie lifts his hand to his mouth and licks the whipped cream off them, trying to be casual about it. He feels something like the happiness feeling zing through them, and something else he can't identify. He swallows hard, remembering the shower last night. "The waitress is coming, hide."

The goo melts beneath his skin. Eddie sits up a little straighter as the waitress leaves the syrup jug and tops up his coffee. 

_Eddie._

"Yeah, dude?"

_We're going back to San Francisco, yes? Are we going after Carlton Drake?_

"Going _after_?" Eddie whispers into his coffee mug. "What do you mean, going after?"

A tendril emerges to wind around his wrist with his bracelets. _We believe that together with you, we could destroy him. So that he can never hurt anyone else again, human or symbiote._

"Wait, destroy as in kill?"

_Carlton Drake is a bad guy, Eddie. He will not stop unless someone stops him._

"I don't kill people, Vee," Eddie whispers furiously into his hand, looking around to make sure no one is listening. At least the restaurant is mostly empty. Through the open rectangle between the counter area and the kitchen, he can see the cook working, his head bobbing to a radio that Eddie can only barely hear. 

_You won't have to. We will do it._

"Look, I don't disagree that he's a bad dude, a dangerous dude. But it feels like a bad idea to go after him just us, you know?"

 _Eddie,_ the goo says patiently, _he is a soft and crunchy human, and we will eat him. And he won't hurt anyone ever again._

The waitress arrives with their food before Eddie can form a reply to that, and the food distracts Venom from their ideas of eating people. He unrolls the silverware from the napkin and hacks off a bite of the omelet, feeling the goo's interest. _What is it?_

"Eggs, with ham and peppers and cheese, and onion I think." 

_Eat it!_

Eddie works through two-thirds of the omelet and half the French toast before the hunger feels like it's abating. Venom keeps up a running commentary about whatever item Eddie's about to put in his mouth. They like the eggs best of all, then the bacon. Eddie does miss the entertainment of watching the goo eat by themselves. _We can still eat like that, Eddie,_ Venom says, clearly catching the feeling. _But we would probably scare people in this restaurant if we came out and sat on the table._

"True that." Eddie takes a sip of his coffee, washing down the last syrupy-sweet bite of French toast. "You can come out for sure when we get home. Do you just like, need to stay connected to me by a little? Or what?"

_Yes, a part of us will stay inside Eddie, and stretch out._

"Awesome."

There's a feeling like they're nuzzling him, but from the inside. Eddie finishes off their hot chocolate and feels a wave of contentment. "Ready to hit the road again?" he asks, after the waitress has dropped off the check. 

_Nap?_

"Sorry, dude, we already checked out of the motel. If you want to rest, I can drive like usual, I guess. I think it'll be about three hours home, and we'll probably have to stop at least once. Then we can take a nap, as long as my building's still there."

_Anne's email said she checked on it._

"Yeah, a few days ago." He takes out his wallet and leaves more than enough cash, then hits the head before going out to the parking lot. He pauses before swinging his leg over the bike. "Are you going to eat my adrenaline again?"

_Of course._

Eddie laughs and puts his helmet on. 

Traffic is light, and they make better time than Eddie expects. Venom doesn't say much, but Eddie can feel that they're awake, and paying attention. He ends up not having to stop at all. _We took care of it,_ Venom says, as Eddie's parking the bike in the alley, muttering about how he can't believe he doesn't have to piss.

"What the hell?"

_We took care of it, stupid. For long enough that we could make it home._

Eddie shakes his head and digs his apartment key from his jacket pocket. "You don't need to do shit like that, okay? We could have stopped at a gas station or whatever to pee, it would only have added like five minutes."

_We just wanted to help._

"And I get that, but if you're going to hang out in my body, you need to listen to me about stuff like this." He unlocks his apartment door, in one piece once again. At first glance, everything he can see inside looks like it's still in the right places. He tosses the backpack and duffel onto the floor, and goes to pee, because he definitely has to go now. 

_Nap now?_ the goo asks, as Eddie washes his hands, then splashes some water on his sweaty face. _We are still adjusting. Rest will be good._

"Yeah, I definitely feel like I need a couple hours." 

Eddie makes sure the door's locked - the landlord put in a deadbolt, nice - then takes his boots and jeans off, and stretches out on the sofa. Venom pools on his stomach, a small head appearing. "Hey, Vee," Eddie mumbles, yawning. He strokes a hand over the goo, and they press up into it. Tendrils hug his ribs.

_Eddie, you will think about what we said about Carlton Drake? Say you will think about it._

"I'll think about it, I promise."

They seem placated by that, and climb up his chest to nuzzle against his neck as Eddie drifts off.

*

Eddie wakes up feeling much, much better. And hungry, but it's not painful like it was before. The goo is still a blob on his chest, their eyes watching him. _You're awake!_ they say, when Eddie blinks at them.

"Didn't you nap?" he asks. He strokes his thumb over their little face. 

_We rested. But you slept longer._ They flick their tongue out to lick at his fingers, then wiggle up closer and lick at his face. _Hungry, Eddie!_

"Me, too. I don't think I've got much, though. You ate that whole bag of potato chips before we left, and that was the last thing I had that wasn't soup and that bag of frozen seafood. Which I don't personally want to eat myself." Eddie rubs the sleep crust from his eyes, then says, "All right, we'll go get some food, and then I need to do some work." 

_You could let us eat someone._

"No, we are not eating anyone, unless they're really, really bad. Like, pedophile rapist bad. Murderer bad."

_So we can eat Carlton Drake?_

"This again already?" Eddie gets a drink of water from the tap, then puts his boots on. "Look, I agree that he's a bad dude, but if you ate him, there would be a huge investigation. People would notice if he just disappeared, bud."

Venom feels distinctly annoyed by that. _We would not look like you while we ate him, Eddie._

"I know, but that doesn't mean there wouldn't be a big murder investigation."

Venom continues to feel annoyed as Eddie walks down to the bodega, but is suddenly distracted by the fish market across the street. _Can we get clams again?_

"Sure." 

The bell jingles as they go into the bodega. "Hi, Eddie," Mrs. Chen calls from where she's behind the counter, pencil in hand, probably doing Soduku. "Where have you been?"

"Oh, I took a bike ride for a few days, visited some places for work." He starts down the aisle with the cereal.

"People came in looking for you."

Eddie backtracks out of the aisle to look at her. "For me, Eddie Brock? What did they look like?"

"Asked about you by name. I said you hadn't been in for a couple days. Looked like private security men, one had a taser on his belt." Her gaze sharpens. "You in some kind of trouble, Eddie?"

"No, no," Eddie insists. "Maybe they wanted to tell me I won the lottery."

 _Life Foundation men,_ Venom says. _See, Eddie? We must do something about this._

"The lottery, mm-hmm," Mrs. Chen says. She looks back down at the puzzle, then adds, "All the frozen foods are on sale. Ten percent off."

"Thanks, Mrs. C."

_Tater tots?_

Eddie nods. He gets a couple bags, and a tub of fudge ripple ice cream. That will at least get them through a few hours, and then he can go to an actual grocery store and stock up. _We want chocolate,_ the goo says, as he lingers in the cereal aisle, looking at the box of Cocoa Puffs. The bell above the door jingles as someone else comes into the store.

"There's chocolate in the ice cream," Eddie whispers to Venom. He heads for the register, then stops cold. There's a gun pointed at Mrs. Chen. The man holding it is gesturing at the cash register. Eddie feels a hot wave of anger run through him. Feels it like it's boiling in his chest. 

_Bad guy?_ Venom asks. 

"Bad guy," Eddie replies without even needing to think about it.

Venom growing up and around him is a warm tingling sensation, followed by another hot wave of rage that anyone would threaten Mrs. Chen. Eddie can see what's happening, but only dimly. He feels like his consciousness is being pushed to the back of their shared mind. Venom, in their monstrous form, grabs the robber by the throat. 

Eddie closes his eyes to all of it as the monster eats the would-be robber's head, then the rest of him. 

When he opens them again, Venom is disappearing beneath his skin. Mrs. Chen is staring at them, somehow not as horrified as Eddie would expect. "Eddie?" she whispers.

"Oh, I've got a parasite," Eddie manages, the words falling stupidly out of his mouth. He hopes she's not about to call the cops. "We, uh. Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Well - ah." Mrs. Chen blinks a few times, then pushes his groceries firmly across the counter. "I saw nothing. Tater tots on the house, okay?" 

Eddie hesitates, because somehow that feels worse than eating the guy who was trying to rob her. "Really," she says, nudging the bag closer to him. "That man had a gun, that's all I know."

_Take the food, Eddie!_

"I, uh - all right. Thanks, Mrs. Chen. Have a good night."

 _You said we were a parasite!_ the goo yells at him, when Eddie's back out in the cool evening air, waiting to cross the street to the fish market. _We are not a parasite!_

"Oh, it was just a term of endearment." Eddie rubs a hand over his chest, trying to process what they'd just done. He feels a little sweaty. "I can't believe you ate that whole dude. Do we even need tater tots now?"

_We always need tater tots._

"Where did it all even go?" Eddie runs his tongue around his mouth, expecting some horrible taste reminder, but there's nothing that would make him think he just swallowed an entire person. 

_Don't need to worry about that, Eddie._ The goo feels like it's nuzzling him from inside again. _We will handle the digestion._

Eddie feels like his stomach should be rolling, but it's not. "Man, I don't even want to ask. Do you still want to get this seafood?"

_Yes!_

He gets the goo their clams, then heads back to the apartment, where he lets the goo eat those with their own mouth as he waits for the tots to cook. They sit on the counter in a round blob with a tendril stretched between them and Eddie, and they stack the shells neatly again. Eddie pokes them with a finger and they squirm. He pokes them again. _Eddie!_

"What, does it tickle?"

 _Yes!_ They throw a clam shell at him, but it's so small, it doesn't go far. 

Eddie wiggles his fingertips over them and they squirm harder. _No, Eddie!_

"But it's funny, babe."

Tendrils shoot out of the blob and wrap around his hand. _You called us babe._

Eddie freezes. "Uh... yeah. Also a term of endearment, I guess?"

 _We like it. Much better than PARASITE._ They melt back under his skin only to re-form up out of his shoulder, then hiss and hide their face against his neck when he opens the toaster oven to retrieve the tots, and a wave of hot air blows over them.

The tots are a little burned in spots, but edible. Eddie dumps them onto a plate and brings it over to the desk so he can work. "We're sharing," he warns Venom. "You can't eat all of them yourself. And how can you even still be hungry? You ate an entire criminal."

Their answer is to stuff a tot into their weird mouth, teeth on full view. Eddie just shakes his head and mutters about how he can't believe he likes them. They nuzzle against his neck. _Why do you need to do work tonight?_ they ask. _We want you to pay attention to us._

"Gotta pay rent somehow, unless you're getting a job. You do like living in a place with a roof and sleeping in a bed, right?" He checks his email first and finds another commission from the travel magazine, and a notification that they've paid him for the last few articles he turned in. 

_What would we even do for a job,_ they grumble, and Eddie hears them make a 'pbbbt' sort of noise around their tongue. He struggles not to laugh. Then he reaches up to pet them gently, and they press into his hand. _Are we taking a shower before you go to sleep for the night? Are you going to jerk off again?_

"Whoa, whoa! That's a blunt question, dude."

 _Same body, babe,_ they reply, clearly sassing him.

"It's not an everyday thing for me," Eddie says, hoping they'll be placated. He rolls his eyes. "I'm not fifteen."

_If you were fifteen you would want to do that all the time?_

"All teenagers think about is sex, dude." He opens a new GoogleDoc. "Okay, I do need to write up this piece about the places we ate along the coast, so please be quiet."

They push acceptance at him and snuggle up against Eddie's neck as he starts to write, and they stay so quiet he thinks they might even doze off. He gets a rough draft done in under an hour, even with having to look up the exact names and addresses of all the places, then double-checks with the notes he scribbled down at the time that his memories are all correct. When he's sent it off to the fact checker, he looks up the place they'd like him to write about for the commission, and finds it to be not even an hour north.

 _We go to the Life Foundation building, we eat Carlton Drake, and then we go to this winery,_ the goo says firmly, clearly awake. _A good plan, Eddie._

"I think getting into the Life Foundation might be harder than you think, and I'm still not sold on eating Drake. And you like wine?"

 _It is an intoxicant, and you would drink it. So we like it._ Tendrils reach down and grab the last lone tater tot on the plate, now cold. Venom eats it happily. _We are quite certain we can get into the building. We know how to pick a mechanical lock, or use ourselves to short out an electronic lock._

Eddie frowns at that. "Don't want you to get electrocuted, Vee."

_Stupid Eddie. We won't get electrocuted._

Eddie stands up from the desk and stretches. His back pops, and he feels Venom's desire to investigate the sound. "I'm fine, it's just air between the joints."

There's a ticklish sensation - weird, but ticklish - that's Venom sliding up his spine, checking on him just the same. _Carlton Drake threatened our friend at the shop, Eddie. You are refusing to give us an answer about stopping him, yet you know we could take over and kill him anyway._

Eddie knows they could. "I just want you to understand that killing him won't mean the rest of the world stops acknowledging his existence. It won't be like what he did to those poor homeless folks, where no one even cared that they were gone. If we're not careful, we'll get caught. And you don't want to go to prison, babe."

_No prison could hold us!_

"A jar with a latch held you," Eddie points out, and distinctly feels their grumble. "You understand, why I'm worried?"

 _We understand._ They manifest back up out of his shoulder to nuzzle behind his ear. _We must come up with a plan._

*

Eddie wakes up at four in the morning to the goo licking his face. "Ugh, what?"

_We want the ice cream._

He squints at the clock and groans. "No, it's too early. We don't need to get up for a few more hours. You need to understand that - most humans sleep at night. The _whole_ night."

They squint down at him. _Ice cream for breakfast?_

"If you let me sleep until at least eight, we can have ice cream for breakfast. Need to get real groceries anyway." Eddie mumbles the back half of that into his pillow, yawning. 

The goo settles down again against his chest, a lump with tendrils outstretched. Eddie puts an arm around them. A small head tucks up under his chin. He can feel their content, and it makes him melt a little inside. He strokes his fingers over them gently. 

_We like it when you hold us, Eddie._

"You're inside me, can't get much closer."

_Still like it when you hold us like this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TYSM to everyone reading along & everyone who has left such great comments (I see you and I ♥ you, folks who comment on every chapter!!!) - the next chapter is the last Venom interlude and then we're rolling closer to the end!


	10. Venom Interlude 3

They don't know how to explain to Eddie how good it feels when he touches them. How _new_. That they have never before allowed a host to lay hands on their symbiote form as much, as often as they have let Eddie. No other host has felt so safe. So _right_. 

It has been a very long time since Venom achieved true symbiosis with a host. Some have come very close. A dim, old part of them remembers a host many hundreds of years ago who was almost as perfect for them as Eddie - Venom can no longer remember the name of that host - one who Venom felt pleased to bond with, who did not scream in terror, who did not make themselves sick trying to reject Venom. One of the few hosts allowed to keep their own thoughts, who spoke to Venom cordially, who was distressed at their bonding but also incredibly curious. 

The host whose name they have forgotten had never cared for them the way Eddie cares for them. They can _feel_ the way Eddie feels about them; the chemical bridge between them often shimmering with Eddie's good feelings, so delicious, so many tasty good chemicals that Venom wants to absorb forever. It makes them want to flood the bridge with their own good feelings, push the chemicals back towards Eddie so that he can experience it as well, and know how happy he makes them.

They have decided that they will reject all Klyntar way of life if it means they can stay on Earth with Eddie. What is the point of conquering, of ravaging, of pain, when they have a host who _likes_ being with them, one who shares with them? A host they want to be _good_ for so that he still wants to be with them. 

They want to do the things Eddie wants to do so that he's happy, and they want to help Eddie with his work so that Eddie will have money for all the snacks he shares with them, and they are not bothered anymore by simply curling up inside Eddie and waiting for his attention again, because they have finally, finally, stopped being _lonely_.


	11. Eddie - Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is NSFW at the end.

"Okay, you can get twenty dollars' worth of whatever junk food you want, but I'm getting at least a couple oranges and some kind of vegetables, and you're not going to complain," Eddie tells the goo as they walk into the grocery store. He found an old Bluetooth earpiece in his junk drawer this morning, so at least it doesn't look like he's talking to himself so much. 

_No green!_

"Might be some green ones, sorry." He gets a cart.

He picks out a few oranges - the goo tastes the oils through his skin and grudgingly agrees that Eddie can eat them - and a bag of grapes. Venom protests all the vegetables Eddie looks at except the carrots, so he gets some of the baby ones, and the eggplant that Venom feels intrigued by. He doesn't know what he'll do with it, but he gets one anyway. 

Venom decides they want to spend their junk food money on chocolate and potato chips. _We want to try all of them, Eddie,_ they say, as Eddie looks at the rows of chocolate bars. 

He points at a particular brand. "This kind here is four dollars a bar, if you got five of them that would use up your entire allowance."

They feel grumpy at that. _We will get a different kind, then!_

They settle on two of the better quality bars, and a handful of Hershey's. In the chip aisle, the stimulation of the grocery store seems to be getting to them, and they feel like they're almost vibrating inside of Eddie. _So many choices! Eddie! Too many choices._

"It's okay, Vee," Eddie murmurs. He wishes they were out, so he could kiss their little head in comfort, but instead he rubs a hand over his chest. It is sort of ridiculous, how many different kinds of chips there are. "I think you'd like the really crunchy ones, so that narrows it down these here. You just have to decide which flavor to try."

They pick barbecue and plain, and Eddie adds the bags to his cart. "See, you figured it out after all."

Tendrils wind around his wrist and squeeze. 

Eddie finishes up - he needs eggs for both of them, coffee for himself, and milk for the coffee - and checks out. "You're going to have to help me carry all this," he whispers to Venom, waiting for the bagger to finish putting everything into the totes Eddie brought. 

_We will help._

They take most of the weight of the bags in their tendrils as Eddie walks the several blocks home - further than he'd really want to walk carrying this much on his own - and hold all the bags in the deserted hallway as Eddie unlocks the apartment door. Then they manifest out of his shoulder to sit there in a lump, watching as he puts everything away and occasionally nuzzling at his neck. _Eddie, we forgot more ice cream._

"We can get that from Mrs. Chen's, plus you just ate an entire half-gallon for breakfast." He starts a new pot of coffee, intending to write for a while. "Let me get some work done, and then we can go out - there's a couple spots where the homeless folks congregate, we can find out who else might be missing, who else Drake took."

_Find more reasons to eat him!_

Eddie huffs a laugh. "Something like that."

Eddie gets about forty minutes of writing about what he saw in the Life Foundation lab in before he hits a wall, not wanting to think about it any longer, and slumps back in the chair. He groans and scrubs his hands over his face. "All right, maybe not getting a couple hours in," he mutters. 

Venom is sitting on his shoulder. They've been mostly quiet as Eddie pecks out the words, a tendril or two in his hair, just touching. _The writing is not going well, Eddie?_

"Wanted to write up the stuff about the lab, for Robby to use with the pictures, but I just feel sort of sick thinking about all of it." He stands and stretches, then scoops the goo off his shoulder so he can kiss their face. They push happiness at him, and Eddie grins back. He gives them another kiss. "All right, time for us to get some fresh air."

Venom disappears beneath his skin again, but asks Eddie what must be twenty questions about all the places they pass as Eddie rides a bus, then walks a few blocks to one of the known homeless encampments. He's only got a couple bucks he can give away, but once he talks to a few people, he finds almost everyone there knows someone who'd volunteered for Life Foundation experiments. "They never came back," he hears, a dozen times at least.

He writes down all the names that anyone knows. "Anyone file missing persons reports?" he asks, although he knows they didn't. The cops don't care about these people. "Who went missing last?"

The two men he's talking to look at each other. "Michael," one of them says finally. "I think his last name was Fallon. He worked at some store that got bought out last year, and he lost his job. Then I think his wife left, took the kids, moved out of state."

"You know who bought out the store?" Eddie asks, writing the name in his notepad. 

"Some hedge fund fuckward, wanted the building." 

"That's enough I should be able to figure it out. Thanks." 

_Eddie, what are we going to figure out?_ Venom asks, as Eddie heads away from the camp. 

"Well, if this Michael Fallon had a job, and a family, then there's people out there who know he exists. Some of these folks that have disappeared, they didn't have anyone or anything, not for years. Nobody who even knew them, other than the other people at the camp. Can't go to the cops to file a missing persons report on someone when you can't prove they even existed. It's not like they had a house or an apartment where you could tell they never went back."

_Relationships on this planet are very complicated,_ Venom says, after a long stretch where Eddie can tell they're thinking about what he said, even if he can't tell exactly what they're thinking about it. _We understand better why you are concerned with work, and paying the rent._

"It ain't cheap here." 

Instead of going back to his apartment, Eddie takes a bus he knows will drop them off within view of the Life Foundation. "Tell me again how you ended up there," he says to the goo, who manifests a little head and tucks it against Eddie's neck.

_We were part of a scouting party. The ones sent ahead to look for hospitable planets._

Eddie remembers the things they've said before about their place among the Klyntar. "Sent ahead because you were disposable."

_Yes. No one would remember us, if we died. Just like the homeless ones you spoke to._

Eddie reaches up and strokes his fingertips over them, gently. They press into his hand. "And what happened?"

_Our ship collided with an asteroid. Crashed. We thought that was the end of us, Eddie. But then another ship landed, not long after. The one from the Life Foundation. The astronauts captured us in symbiote form before any of us could take one of them as a host. They brought us back to Earth._

"That ship crashed, though," Eddie says, remembering the news coverage. "I saw it on the news. All the astronauts died."

_The Life Foundation got to that crash before anyone else, and took those of us who were still alive in our cages. One did escape - Riot._

"Do you know what happened to them after they escaped?"

_We do not. We would not be surprised to find out that they took a host immediately, from among the humans who came to deal with the crash. But we don't know where they are._

Eddie remembers the crash being halfway around the world. "What were they like?"

_Horrible! Terrible! A predator. Uncaring._ They press hard against Eddie's neck, and he's disturbed to feel their disgust. _We did not get along with Riot. We are glad to get away from them._

"They didn't care if you lived or died?"

_To worry about such things would have been beneath them,_ Venom grumbles. _Eddie, we don't want to think about Riot anymore._

"Okay, okay. So the Life Foundation brought you and the others back here -" Eddie points at the building " -and the scientists tried to get you to bond with the volunteers."

_That is correct. First, they tried small creatures. Ones without a consciousness. We ate them. Then they brought in humans. We are sorry, Eddie. We killed your friend._

"No, the Life Foundation killed Maria. You didn't know. You were doing what's in your nature," Eddie says sharply, feeling their distress. He shakes his head. "It's not her fault she wasn't the right host for you, and it's not your fault, either."

_You are the right host for us._ They pulse pleasantly against his spine, relax his shoulders down away from his ears. He feels a press against his neck that he's pretty sure is the goo giving him a kiss with their weird mouth, then a flick of their tongue.

"Again with the licking," he grumbles, but he doesn't mean it, so they do it again, then cozy up against him once more. 

Eddie looks across the water at the building for a while longer. "You're sure you could get in?" he asks the goo.

_We could get in._ They show him a perfect image of themselves as the monster, climbing the outside of the building until they get to Drake's office, then smashing the window. 

"Seems excessive," Eddie mumbles, but he's grinning.

_If we walk in as Eddie, the security cameras will catch us._

"You're not wrong, babe." He looks at the building a moment longer. "I like your window-smashing plan, I do, but that sounds more like something suited to, you know, the middle of the night."

_And Carlton Drake will not be there in the middle of the night. That is what you are trying to say._

"Got it in one."

_We sneak in instead?_ they ask. 

"That might be our best bet. We need to plan this out, if we're really going to do it. Dr. Skirth basically walked me in the door all the employees use last time, but it was late. And to be honest, dude, I barely remember getting the fuck out of there, I was so scared."

The goo extends tendrils down his arm and squeezes his hand. _We will come up with a plan, Eddie._

"We definitely need one. All right, for now we're gonna stop back at Mrs. Chen's and buy one of those prepaid phones, because I can't keep going around with no phone." His actual phone is back at the apartment, wrapped in a piece of tinfoil. He turned it on long enough to set up voicemail transcription, and set that all to forward to his gmail address, so that if someplace calls wanting him to write for them, he'll still get the message. 

Plus he does feel a little itchy not carrying a phone, after all these years.

_Get ice cream, too!_

"I guess."

They take the bus back to Eddie's neighborhood. Mrs. Chen is filing her nails when they walk in. Her eyes widen slightly at the sight of him, but she doesn't draw back in terror. Her "Hi, Eddie" sounds like it does every other day.

"Hey, Mrs. Chen. How's sales today?"

"I got some new teas. Digestion, focus, mental clarity." She nudges her glasses up her nose, then narrows her gaze at him. "One with extra vitamin C."

"You got one for my tapeworm?"

"Very funny, Eddie." She goes back to her filing. 

_We are not a tapeworm!_ Venom shouts. Eddie heads for the freezers in the back, grinning to himself. _Get chocolate, Eddie._

"Plain chocolate? Chocolate with more chocolate in it? Rocky Road?" 

_What is Rocky Road?_ There's the tickling sensation as their little head forms, stretching towards the freezer doors to look. Eddie explains, because he's not sure Venom can read much English yet. _Sounds tasty. We would try it._

Eddie grabs the half gallon, then heads back up to the front of the store. There's no one else shopping except him, and Mrs. Chen has already seen their bad side, so he doesn't tell Venom to hide. Mrs. Chen's eyes widen again as they approach. "This your friend?" she asks. 

"This is Venom," Eddie says. 

"Hello," Venom says out loud, and Eddie jumps, startled at the voice. 

It sounds the same as it did in his head, surprisingly deep for the small head they're currently manifesting. "You never said you could actually talk!" he accuses.

"Much easier telepathically," Venom replies, more to Mrs. Chen than to Eddie. "Vocal cords are… difficult."

She's nodding at them. Then she leans forward, looking closer at Venom. "Is this why those men came around asking for you?"

Eddie mimes locking his lips and throwing away the key. Mrs. Chen nods again. "You don't worry about me, Eddie and friend," she says. 

"Thanks, Mrs. C., we appreciate it. Can you grab me one of those prepaid phones up there?" He points at the few on display behind her. "I'm having a fight with my regular carrier." 

She looks heavenward for a second. "Just get the insurance on it."

He pays for the ice cream and phone. Mrs. Chen adds a chocolate bar to the bag. "As a thank-you for taking care of the robber," she whispers theatrically. 

_Say thank you, Vee,_ Eddie thinks towards the goo.

"Thank you for the candy," Venom says politely, and out of the corner of his eye, Eddie sees them grin at her with their toothy mouth.

_Free chocolate, Eddie!_ Venom says to him, pleased. Eddie sees them wave a little hand-shaped protrusion at Mrs. Chen before they leave the store. 

"You are ridiculous, Vee. Hide now."

Back at the apartment, Venom takes the bag away from Eddie as he's taking his boots off, and tries to reach in to open the chocolate bar. Eddie kicks the boot from his foot and takes the bag back from them. "You can't wait ten seconds?"

_No! We did work today, Eddie. Need a snack now._

Eddie puts the ice cream in the freezer. "I'm putting on sweatpants," he says. "Then you can have the chocolate."

The goo winds themselves around his neck like a needy snake as he changes. _When can we go to eat Carlton Drake? Tonight?_ they ask. They lick Eddie's cheek. 

He stills with one leg of the sweatpants on. "I don't have a timeline, bud, but definitely not tonight. We need to figure out how to get in, remember?"

_Are there plans for the building that show doors? We told you already we can get past the locks._

"There might be." Eddie tugs the sweats into place, then readjusts his balls. "Could be plans on file with the City. I've got a contact in that office. Or at least I think I've still got a contact in that office. She might be able to find out what blueprints are there, if any."

_We could scout the building at night._ They wind up behind his ear, then rest most of their mass on top of Eddie's head for a moment before crawling down the other side of him. 

"We could. What are you doing?"

_Hungry!_

Eddie feels it then, a strong ache in the pit of his stomach. "Were you making it so that I didn't feel as hungry as you?" he asks.

_You were busy working. We did not want to distract you._

"Well, that was nice, but you didn't have to." In the kitchen, he fills a bowl with ice cream, and takes it and the chocolate bar to the couch. 

_Are you letting us sit on this furniture now?_ the goo asks, manifesting up out of Eddie's thigh as a blob with eyes, a mouth, and hand protrusions that reach immediately for the candy.

"Yeah, I guess." He hands them the bar and they tear through the wrapper in excitement. Shreds of paper and foil go all over the sofa. Eddie sighs and takes a bite of his ice cream, then pulls his laptop a little closer on the coffee table to check his email. He can feel Venom's pleasure at having chocolate, and when he's finished his own snack and looks over at them, they're lying halfway on top of the destroyed wrappers, tendrils jamming one of the last few squares into their mouth.

_Want some, Eddie? We would share._

"Sure." 

Tendrils lift a square up in front of his face. Eddie opens his mouth, and they carefully set the piece on his tongue. "Thanks," he mumbles around the melting chocolate.

_It is not brains or pancreas, but it is still delicious._ They eat another square, and Eddie watches their eyes close in bliss. 

He strokes a hand over them, and they push up against it. "You like that?"

_It feels nice when you touch us._ A pause. _Because you want to touch us._

He rubs his thumb lightly over their face-area, next to their eyes. He feels them shiver slightly. He touches around their funny mouth, and their long tongue rolls out, licks at Eddie's fingers. "Okay, Vee?" he asks quietly.

_Yesssss._ The teeth appear. _Are you?_

"Yes." 

Eddie can feel their quiet pleasure through the bond; the sensation is like nothing he's ever experienced before. He turns his hand slightly, and they nuzzle their face against his fingers. Eddie thinks about how shitty he felt after he lost his job, his reputation, and his fiancee all in one day, how it had been a sick weight in his stomach, a tightness in his chest. He wonders if that was how Venom had felt for years.

_STOP, Eddie,_ they say, and launch themselves up at his chest, winding tendrils around him in their version of a hug. 

Eddie strokes his hands over their back, or what he figures is their back when they're like this. Their head bumps up under his chin, so he ducks his face to press a kiss to their surface. 

_Maybe we don't need to go eat Carlton Drake just yet,_ they say, rippling slightly in what Eddie's pretty sure is happiness. _We want to stay like this with you._

"I like this plan," Eddie replies. He runs his hands over them again, harder this time, and feels them shiver delightedly.

_More, Eddie. Squeeze._

Eddie squeezes them gently, not wanting to hurt them, and feels the same long warm rush of pleasure and contentedness as a few moments ago. "Okay, Vee?"

_Yes._ Tendrils slide up to touch Eddie's face. He registers a feeling underneath his own that's almost like an itch, insistent. The touch on his face is almost caressing. Then the tendrils trace around his mouth, making him catch his breath. _Do you need to go in the shower?_

"Go in the shower? I took one this morning - _oh_."

They grin at him. 

"It's just easier to jerk off in the shower, for cleanup and everything. It's not mandatory," Eddie explains. He feels his pulse picking up. 

_Can we do it right here?_

"Oh, what the hell," Eddie mutters, and slides a hand under the waistband of his sweats. 

_We want to see, Eddie!_ they insist, tendrils tugging at the material. 

Eddie rolls his eyes. "You can feel what I'm feeling, Vee." 

He wiggles the sweatpants down enough to free his cock. _This isn't what it looked like the other day,_ Venom says, almost accusingly. 

"Just give me a second, jeez. Gotta get the blood flowing."

A sudden hot flush runs through him, unlike anything Eddie's ever felt before. He stares at the goo, and they stare back. "Was that you?"

_We want to help._

His dick throbs. "Damn," Eddie breathes. 

_Can we touch, Eddie?_

He shudders at that. "You're already a part of me, Vee, of course -"

The words are cut off by a groan as tentacles glide over his cock. "Oh, shit," Eddie gasps, arching up into the touch despite the strangeness of it. _Too long since someone touched me like this,_ he thinks. 

_We won't do anything you don't want,_ Venom replies. 

"You eat people," Eddie grumbles, but he's mostly just saying it to say it at this point. He settles his legs a little further apart, and the goo cups his balls in more tentacles. "Oh, God."

_Feels good._

Eddie shivers. "You feel good like, as you? Or it feels good because I'm turned on?"

There's a pause; Eddie thinks he can feel Venom thinking about it, arousal swimming through both of them. He takes a deep breath and concentrates on that part of his consciousness that Venom also seems to occupy. _Eddie… oh,_ the goo moans, softer than their voice has ever been in Eddie's head before, and they must do something to the chemical mix that bridges them because suddenly Eddie feels twice as aroused, and his mouth is flooded with the things Venom is tasting - salty and bitter but not unpalatable. 

_Tastes so good,_ Venom says, their mass pulsing around Eddie's cock. He bucks up into it, unthinking, and the goo squeezes tighter. _Okay, Eddie?_

_It's good,_ Eddie thinks back at them, sure that any words spoken out loud would just be a garbled mess. Distantly, he realizes he's digging his fingers into the worn leather of the sofa. There's another heady wave of endorphins and pleasure ribbons up his spine to land as an ache in the back of his throat. 

The goo _whines_ and increases their frenzied movements around him, undulating like nothing he's ever seen before, what feels like a thousand tiny sucking mouths against his skin. Eddie shudders thinking about it. He slides a hand against them, squeezes where they're wrapped around his cock, and they make a sound like a moan. 

_pleaseeddieplease,_ Venom says in his head, and their desperation is what gets him suddenly to the finish line, over it, and leaves him boneless _and_ breathless, and leaves the goo a happy shivering thing melted in the cradle of Eddie's thighs.


	12. Eddie - Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anne & Dan finally make an appearance!

Eddie's never been more glad that he actually used the contact sync feature as when he grabs the prepaid phone to call Shannon at the city planning office, and realizes none of his contacts are in there except his mom. And Anne as his ICE contact, just in case, because he sure doesn't know who to change it to. He turns to look at Venom, who is currently stretched away from him by a web of thin strands and sitting on the desk, poking around YouTube on Eddie's computer, their tendrils delicately pressing the keys. "Vee, can I borrow the laptop for just a second?" 

_We just found the video we want to watch,_ they say, looking up at him and frowning with their mouth.

"I need to get numbers out of my address book so we can work on this Drake problem, dude."

Their eyes widen and they nudge the laptop towards him. _Eddie, are we going soon?_

"Well, depends on how quick I hear back from Shannon, and if she can actually access some blueprints." Eddie looks at the screen. Venom's got several tabs of YouTube open: some sort of martial arts, a woman who's baking what looks like a very fancy chocolate cake, and something called _ASMR Satisfying Slime Compilation_ that looks like it's a pair of hands poking a lump of jello. "What happened to Play-Doh?" Eddie mutters, mostly to himself.

He looks at Venom, who suddenly has no eyes nor mouth. "Did you not want me to see what you watch?" Eddie asks, suddenly feeling a little flushed, and he's pretty sure it's not his own emotions causing it. For explanation's sake, he adds, "Because it's connected to my gmail account, so what you watch is going to make YouTube think I want to watch more stuff like this. And I don't mind, but maybe you need your own gmail and YouTube accounts."

The eyes appear - slowly. _The algorithm will find us more videos like this?_

"Sure." He doesn't bother asking how Venom knows about YouTube's recommendation algorithm; the goo has figured out plenty that Eddie wouldn't have expected. "Just gimme a few seconds to find this number and you can go back to watching your stuff."

He can tell they're still slightly embarrassed - maybe, he's still working on sorting out the things he feels versus the things Venom feels, and appropriately labeling the things Venom feels - but they don't volunteer why they might be embarrassed by any of those videos, just say, _Okay._

A minute later and Eddie's dialing, and Venom's watching the baker frost the cake.

*

It's Wednesday when Shannon emails Eddie what she says are "partial plans, there were a bunch of architects on this project and we don't have final prints, so good luck", and Eddie figures are better than nothing. _We can read them, Eddie,_ Venom says, _so you can put your shoes on._

Eddie is meeting Anne for coffee; she'd asked to meet, saying she had something to tell him. Eddie frantically does the math in his head and tries to remember what they'd done the last time they slept together, wondering if he's going to show up at the cafe to find a very visibly pregnant Anne. 

_You're very stressed about this,_ Venom says. Eddie finishes with his boots and walks over to them, the stretched-out tendrils between them reabsorbing into his body as he gets closer to the symbiote. It had been really weird the first time, but he's sort of gotten used to it. _Don't you want to have offspring?_

"I thought I did, when Annie and I were still together," Eddie confesses. Lying to Venom is pointless when they can feel his emotions. "Now - fuck, my life is messed up enough as it is."

Venom whips their head-blob around and narrows their eyes at him. "I didn't mean you," Eddie hurries to say. He reaches out to stroke their face, and they wind around his arm. "Like, this is weird, but I meant messed up as in I live in a shitty studio apartment I'm just barely managing to afford; I couldn't let a kid come over here."

_Hmm._ Venom melts back into him entirely so they can leave, then asks, _Would Anne not be a good mother?_

Eddie reminds himself that even though the goo can read blueprints, they're new to how human relationships work. "I think she'd be a great fucking mom, honestly, but humans with kids who aren't married usually have to work out something called a custody arrangement, saying who is responsible for the kids when, so both parents can see their kids. And the courts like it when all the parents have decent homes."

He remembers doing a couple shows about family court a few years ago. "Anyway, I think she would have told me before now if she was pregnant, and I need to stop worrying about what this news is before we actually get there," he mutters. 

_You do. It's making an ache in your stomach._

"Yeah, thanks." 

The goo settles warmly in his shoulders, clearly wanting him to relax. Eddie takes a deep breath that he thinks is mostly centering, then grabs his keys and wallet to leave. The cafe is close enough that he can walk it in about twenty minutes, and that'll let Venom tell him what they saw in the building plans.

_Your friend was right and the plans were not the entire building. The underground labs where we were held are not included. We think the ground level and most of the upper floors were accounted for._

"Ground floor, that's good, right? That's the level we'd want to get in on," Eddie replies. He remembered the fake Bluetooth today; one for the win column. 

_To get into the building to begin with, at least. But we cannot tell from the plans where Drake's office is._

Eddie snorts. "Surely it's the biggest one." 

_There are three offices of about the same size,_ they say glumly. 

"So what, we'd have to sneak around to all three to figure out which one is Drake's?"

Venom is quiet for a few minutes, but Eddie can tell they're thinking about something; that corner of his mind he's starting to think of as the place he and the symbiote overlap is preoccupied with what they'd seen in the blueprints. Eddie's only a few blocks from the cafe when Venom says, _We think if you can get into a vent, or close to a vent, we can stretch along the inside of it and look into the offices, see which one belongs to Drake._

"That's not a bad idea," Eddie admits. "Except for how I'd be worried something would happen to you in the vent."

_It's a vent, stupid._

"Well, vents have _fans_ sometimes," Eddie grumbles. 

The goo does the thing where it feels like they're nuzzling against Eddie's neck, but from the inside. Eddie sighs. He's coming up on the cafe, so he says, "Try not to distract me too much, okay? If you're chill, we could go looking for actual bad guys for you to eat this weekend. Or get hot fudge sundaes."

Venom pushes both amusement and pleasure at him. _So many choices._

Anne stands up from her table as soon as she sees Eddie walk in, and relief floods him when he sees she's definitely not pregnant. _Eddie, your chemicals -_ the goo starts. Eddie whispers, "Later, Vee," as he realizes there's a dark-haired man standing up next to Anne. 

"Eddie, hi," she says, smiling, as Eddie approaches. 

"Hey." He sticks his hands in his jacket pockets, then takes them out again. 

She turns slightly towards the new guy. "Um, this is Dan."

Dan holds out his hand. Eddie shakes it, because he can't not. "Annie's told me a lot about you," Dan says. His grip is firm. He's wearing a plaid button-down with a skinny tie. 

"Really?"

"Yeah." Dan offers what Eddie figures could be a smile. "I'm a - I'm a big fan of your work."

"Really?" Anne asks him. 

_Can we eat this Dan? You don't like him,_ Venom says. 

_Sssh,_ Eddie pushes back.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, all the people that he took down."

Once upon a time, Eddie would have enjoyed that as a compliment. Now he just watches Anne's eyes widen slightly. "You know I was one of them."

Dan clears his throat, looking embarrassed. "I, uh - yeah, honey."

"Anyway," Anne says firmly, clearly ending that part of the conversation. "Eddie, I wanted to check in with you, see how you were doing. _And_ introduce you to Dan. Since he's moving in."

"Oh." 

Dan gives him a smile that could also be a grimace. 

"That's great, that's great," Eddie hurries to add. He feels the back of his neck getting sweaty. "Um, what sort of work do you do, Dan?"

"I'm a doctor. At General."

Well, that's a huge step up from unemployed journalist. Eddie wants to reach up and rub his neck, but Venom gently stops him. "That's awesome. I, uh - I'm going to get a coffee, be right back. Uh - you guys want anything?"

Anne and Dan both gesture to their cups. 

"Cool," Eddie says stupidly, and would probably trip going up to the cashier if not for Venom smoothing his motions. 

_You are agitated,_ the goo says calmly.

_Yeah, no shit,_ he thinks back. 

_Calm down._

_That's easier said than done, you jerk._

Venom pinches his wrist. _You don't mean that._

The cashier looks at him with a bored expression. "Sir? What can I get started for you?"

Eddie returns his focus to his actual surroundings. Right, coffee. "Biggest mocha you've got, the dark chocolate one."

_Yessss, chocolate,_ the goo all but purrs. _Thank you, Eddie._

_Just stay quiet, okay, babe?_

Waiting at the end of the counter gives him enough time to collect himself, Venom nuzzling gently at the back of his neck in a clear attempt at comfort. 

"Mocha for Eddie!" the barista calls, and slides the large cup smoothly across the counter. Eddie grabs it, takes a deep breath, then walks back to the table and sits down. Anne and Dan both smile at him, which is concerning. He pops the lid from the cup and blows across the steaming surface. _Too hot,_ he tells the goo.

"So what have you been doing lately?" Anne asks, in that way where she's trying not to sound too invested, but her eyebrows have lifted enough to give her away. It clicks for Eddie, suddenly - this is Anne wanting to make sure he's okay, and not lying on the couch in a black depression, sweating into his pajamas and working on his beer gut. 

They're not together anymore, but she still cares. Enough that she wanted to introduce him to her new boyfriend in person, and not have Eddie hear about it from one of their mutual friends he barely talks to anymore. 

_You're a good person, Eddie,_ the goo says. _Of course she would still care._

"Oh, you know… making rent by writing bullshit for some travel websites, while I do some investigative stuff on the side."

"What are you investigating?" Dan asks. 

Eddie could lie here, that's the thing. He takes a quick drink of his coffee to cover his hesitation, as Venom says, _If something happens to us, Eddie, someone should know. So we don't end up like those people at the homeless camp, the ones everyone forgot about. Just like how you emailed Anne when we took the motorcycle trip, so she would know where you were._

Venom's not wrong. Eddie definitely doesn't want to just disappear, forgotten. 

"Eddie?" Anne prompts. 

"The Life Foundation," he answers honestly. 

"Seriously, Eddie?" She draws back slightly. "After - after everything?"

Eddie glad now that he transferred the pictures from the lab to this throwaway phone, shitty as the screen is. He takes it out now and pulls up the gallery, then slides it over to Anne. " Just look, all right? My friend died there. I have to do something."

Anne's and Dan's heads bend together to look at the pictures. _Are you going to tell them our plans?_ the goo asks, curling anxiously between Eddie's shoulder blades. 

_No!_ Eddie thinks back strongly, and Venom unwinds a little.

"I don't disagree that it's unethical and just plain _wrong_ ," Dan says, looking up from the pictures. A frown is creasing his face. "But..."

_Are you sure we can't eat him, Eddie?_ Venom asks. 

"Eddie, Drake already cost you everything once," Anne finishes.

_No, Vee, we can't eat him,_ Eddie answers the goo. 

He takes the phone back. "I know. But he can't keep getting away with killing people. And I'm not going to publish it, someone else is."

"So your name won't be associated," Dan says. He leans back in his chair, one arm cupped over the other. 

Eddie shakes his head. 

"I guess I could never tell you what to do even when we were together," Anne murmurs. "Just… please be careful, okay?" 

"I am," Eddie promises. 

_You are NOT,_ Venom says, but they squeeze Eddie's wrist gently underneath the table. 

Anne's expression shifts, something almost apologetic. "I need to get back to the office, but we have a box of stuff out in the car that's yours. Stuff I found after you moved out."

"Sure," Eddie says, because there's nothing else he can say. 

_You feel sad,_ the goo says.

_It's okay, really,_ Eddie answers them. He is sad, a little, but the part of him that was holding out hope Anne would take him back is the part that's always been irrational. 

Dan shakes Eddie's hand again as they all walk out of the coffeeshop. "I'm going this way -" he points, "- so, Annie, I'll see you later. Eddie, it was great to meet you."

"You, too." 

Anne's car is around the corner. It unlocks with a chirp, and she pulls an old copy-paper box from the backseat to hand to him. Eddie looks down into it. A tee shirt he'd written off as disappeared, a coffee mug, a bundle of his favorite pens - he'd probably left them scattered all over the apartment and not even realized. There's some photographs, too. Him and Anne at his mom's sixtieth birthday party. The two of them with his cousin's kids at the Museum of Natural History, making funny faces in front of the stegosaurus skeleton. 

"I guess this means we're really never getting back together," he murmurs, almost more to the photographs than to her. 

"I've moved on, Eddie," Anne says quietly. "You should, too. We can still be friends - I would like that - but I'm not in love with you anymore."

"You're in love with Dan."

She nods. 

"He seems okay," Eddie offers, as Venom says, _We still want to eat him._

_No, Vee._ "I want you to be happy, Annie."

"I want you to be happy, too." She pats his hand where he's holding the box, her touch gentle. "If you - if you want to get dinner with Dan and me sometime, just call."

She's leaving the ball in his court; Eddie's not sure if he appreciates that or not. Right now he just feels a little tender. "That sounds good. I will."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Thanks for the stuff." 

"Of course." She gives a little wave and gets into the car.

_Do you want me to help you carry this, Eddie?_ Venom asks, quietly for once.

The box isn't heavy. Eddie thinks his heart is, right at this moment, but it'll get better. "That's okay, Vee. I got it."

*

Eddie spends an hour writing up the rest of the email to Robby about the Life Foundation's nefarious doings, mentioning experiments with things brought back on spaceships but mostly leaving the sentience of the symbiotes out of it, and sends it before he can keep second-guessing. Venom is curled lazily around his neck. Occasionally, they flick out their tongue to lick Eddie's ear, just to distract him.

"Okay, done," he announces, and stands up to stretch. 

Venom unwinds enough to nuzzle at his cheek. Eddie turns his head to kiss their little face. They preen. _Hungry, Eddie!_

Yeah, Eddie's hungry. "Okay, lunch it is." 

Venom gets the other half of their bag of barbeque chips and some defrosted seafood, and Eddie makes himself an omelet. The goo squints down at the stove from his shoulder as Eddie waits for the eggs to set and the cheese to melt. _Better raw._

"Really?" Eddie asks, then shakes his head. "No, I'm not eating raw eggs."

_We will eat them for you._ Tendrils stretch towards the carton he hasn't put away yet. Eddie figures this is happening whether he wants it to or not, and just watches them nudge open the cardboard and select an egg. It's drawn up into the mass of them sitting on his shoulder, then he hears a muffled crunch. _Delicious!_

"Ridiculous," Eddie replies. He flips his omelet. It's almost done and he's glad, because his stomach is growling. 

Venom reabsorbs under his skin again before Eddie carries everything to the table, but re-manifests out of his arm to crawl into the bag of chips. Eddie can hear them crunching, and the foil of the bag crinkling. "You are ridiculous," he tells them, cutting himself a bite of the eggs. 

There's more crunching. Eddie figures the bag is empty when they emerge from it, some chip dust on them. Gently, he brushes it off. They move on to their bowl of seafood and Eddie is glad they don't mind being mostly separate to eat, because he doesn't want to eat raw pieces of whatever whitefish this is, or the thawed mussels. 

The laptop is close enough that he can tug it in front of him once his omelet is gone, and check his email as Venom finishes their lunch. The other travel website wants to know if he'd write about the state's various Bigfoot museums. 

"You think Bigfoot is real?" he asks the goo. 

_Who is that?_

Eddie pulls up a website with pictures of the Patterson-Gimlin film. "Semi-local cryptid. People say they see him a couple times a year." 

The goo leans towards the screen for a moment, then says, _Looks fake to us,_ before going back to the last few chunks of fish.


	13. Eddie - Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for Riot!

The night they're going to try to break into the Life Foundation, Eddie writes an email to Anne explaining about Venom, and also what he'd like her to do with all his stuff, if possible, in the event he doesn't make it out of the building alive. Or ends up in jail. At the end he writes, "you can tell Dan all of this, I don't mind," and sends it before he can second-guess his decision.

Then he gets dressed in all black. _This is not much different than what you normally wear,_ the goo says, as Eddie gets his black hoodie from the closet. 

"More black, babe. So we blend in."

_Could let us take over, we would blend in to the dark._

"With those teeth?"

They push annoyance at him, but not much, and it's mixed with a touch of amusement. _Apex predator, Eddie. And we can hide teeth if we need to._

They've figured out the best way to approach the Life Foundation building is from the woods that butt up against it on two sides. Venom says they can get through the fence, so Eddie doesn't have to worry about climbing over the razor wire on top of it. One potentially painful obstacle: avoided. 

Several potentially painful obstacles: still ahead.

Eddie takes the bike to what he's figured out is the best side road to leave it in for a semi-quick getaway ( _we can drive if you cannot, Eddie_ was Venom's response to that idea, clearly trying to be supportive but just freaking out Eddie more).

 _When we are done here, we are having chocolate,_ Venom announces, as Eddie slips into the trees. _A lot of chocolate._

"You got it, Vee."

_Can we take over now?_

"You can help me get through the trees, but I think if we're the full-size monster, we might make too much noise, breaking branches and shit."

The goo grumbles at his choice of words, but both quickens and lightens Eddie's steps. It's still an odd feeling, being carried along by his own body. _I got us,_ Venom reassures him.

 _I hope so,_ Eddie thinks back at them.

"Okay, this is wild, Vee," he whispers, as they tear a hole in the fence that surrounds the back of the Life Foundation's property. "I didn't know you could do that."

 _Don't know a lot of things, Eddie._

"Shut up."

 _You shut up._

"You just don't come across as that strong, as a blob."

 _We are taking over for real now, Eddie._

Eddie nods and closes his eyes for a brief second. The warm far-awayness of it envelopes him. He can see through Venom's eyes but it's as though through a filter of sorts; everything is just a little sharper, the colors skewed just slightly. Things that are warmer than their surroundings have a glow. _What is this, heat-vision?_ Eddie thinks.

 _Something like that._

They slither - there's no other word for it and Eddie has to struggle to breathe normally through the strange feeling of it ( _Eddie,_ Venom says, _Do not worry about oxygen. We are Venom. We are One._ ) - until they're pressed up against the building. 

_You can recede, Eddie,_ Venom tells him. _Sit in the backseat, we mean, if that makes sense. Like you are the one riding in the backpack._

Eddie remembers the last time they took complete control of his body. Under any other circumstance, he would protest. But in this instance, it's probably best the monster be in charge. 

Venom extends a tendril of themselves into the lock. After a second, the door unlatches. The building is cool and quiet. Venom immediately heads for the stairs. If Drake is here, they will kill him. They're almost certain he has been in the building in the last few minutes - they can smell him in the air. ("You can smell him?" Eddie asks.)

_Yes. He was in the lab often, but we did not know his name then._

Eddie shudders, grossed out on Venom's behalf.

 _Eddie, the rocketship,_ Venom says, stopping their creep up the stairwell. Eddie snaps fully back to attention; they're looking out the window towards the platform where the rocketship is waiting. Lights are on all around it. Steam is curling from the base. ("That doesn't look like a good thing," Eddie says, out loud but still inside. "What rocket takes off at seven o'clock at night on a Thursday?")

_One that is doing bad things._

A form moves on the platform. Venom tenses. _Fucking shit,_ they growl, the unsual profanities making Eddie startle. _It's Riot._ ("That's not good," Eddie mutters, "so what to do we do?")

_We stop Riot from doing whatever it is they are going to do with the rocketship. It cannot be good, whatever it is._

Venom knows more about all of this stuff than Eddie, so he's going to go with it. "What do you think our chances are?"

 _Less than zero._

If Eddie's being honest, that sounds about right for his life these last few months. Plus they're already committed to this. If they die, well, at least they die trying to stop something horrible. "Fuck it, let's fucking do this." 

They push through the closest exit door and run towards the platform. 

A horrible shudder runs through Eddie when Riot notices their approach and turns, an ugly hulking mass, teeth and claws looking almost poisonous. A sneer curls over their face. 

"VENOM!" Riot shouts, loudly enough Eddie would swear his bones vibrate. "Where have you BEEN?"

"That is one ugly fuck," Eddie mutters, wishing in vain that he and the goo could be back on the sofa, watching cooking shows and eating potato chips instead of being here, about to fight to the death. 

"We have been exploring this planet," Venom shouts back, such a strong growl in the words that it vibrates through Eddie inside of them. "Learning!"

"Learning what we need for conquering, no doubt!" Riot stomps in a circle around them. Some sort of slime drips from their teeth; Eddie is even more grossed out. He can feel Venom's utter hatred for this other symbiote. It's so strong, it's nearly a vibration. He thinks he can feel it in his lungs. 

Riot bares their teeth again and hisses. "Come! We will bring the others back here, and Earth - Earth will be ours for the taking."

Then Riot shakes like a wet dog, and Eddie sees Carlton Drake emerge partway from the other Klyntar. "My symbiote!" he calls, beckoning towards Venom. "You've come home. Bring your host, join us."

Eddie feels a hot rage sweep through him, stronger than any rage he's ever felt before, yet still he knows it's _his_ alone, and not _theirs_ , combined.

"We will do no such thing," Venom growls. ( _You tell him, Vee._ )

_We don't think he knows you are our host, Eddie._

"We won't let you destroy this world," Venom hisses at a re-formed Riot, who only laughs, with both their voice and Drake's.

"YOU are going to stop me? You are WEAK. You are NOTHING." They roar it close in Venom's face, and Eddie feels Venom's minute flinch, remembers what Venom said about this asshole nearly eating them. 

_You're not nothing, Vee,_ Eddie shouts from inside, trying to ignore the fear spiking through him. _You're not weak._

Then he screams as Riot lashes out, slicing at them. The wound burns but heals almost instantly. Edide would stumble back, but Venom stands their ground. _Holy shit, how the fuck can we kill it if you guys can heal right away?_ Eddie thinks at Venom.

 _Burn them, eat them, or blow them to bits,_ Venom replies. ( _Right... sure…_ ) _Close your eyes, Eddie,_ Venom continues, _and let us deal with them._

It's almost sweet, that they don't want him to watch, but Eddie's pretty sure he should pay attention for this. Venom leaps at Riot, all teeth and claws, and they grapple, rolling partway down the metal grate pathway towards the platform. There's a dim sense of heat; Eddie registers they must be getting closer to the spaceship. 

_The spaceship would probably explode, if we could sabotage it somehow,_ he thinks at Venom. ( _Yes, Eddie._ ) 

"You're too late," Riot howls, and his sharp teeth bite and tear at them. 

"NO!" Venom shouts. They leap away, then yank a section of the catwalk railing free with a metallic screech, and use it to drive Riot back, closer to the billowing gases of the rocket.

The PA system suddenly blasts a horrible wave of screeching feedback, loud enough to make them stagger. Eddie feels Venom separate partway, then he rocks with the fist Drake lands on his jaw, somehow seeing through both his eyes and Venom's that Drake and Riot have also split partway. 

_The sound,_ Venom shouts in his head as they return to one form. They glance towards the control tower - ("What the fuck are they doing here?" Eddie yells; it's Anne and Dan up there, their tiny forms visible thanks to Venom's better eyesight -) _Helping US, Eddie,_ Venom yells back, and drives towards Riot/Drake with another sharp length of ripped metal in their hand.

Eddie does what he can. He doesn't think it's much. The wailing feedback blasts again and he ducks the blow Drake aims at him. There's a terrible howl; Venom has javelined the steel piece into Riot's belly. 

It's not enough. Riot/Drake slashes at them with a huge hand full of huge claws. Eddie would scream if he could, as they tumble backwards along the platform. _Got you, Eddie,_ Venom says, and there's a warm rush as the gash in their side heals up. 

They can't talk to Anne and Dan; they can only hope to time some sort of attack with the next blast of feedback. Riot is storming towards them again. Venom rips another piece of metal from the catwalk; Eddie can't help but notice this piece seems even sharper. 

A clawed hand closes around their throat and Eddie feels the cold fear that flickers in Venom before they force it out, before they lash out at Riot with the twisted piece of metal, impaling them again and making them release their grip. Riot stumbles back, closer again to the rocket. Something like blood drips down the makeshift spear, but as Eddie watches, the wound in Riot's form begins to knot back together. 

("Vee," Eddie says. "If we can figure out how to kill this bitch once and for all, we can go home and jerk off and eat all the frozen potato products you want.") 

_If we cannot burn them up, we will have to eat them, to be sure they're dead,_ Venom replies. ("Make more teeth. Whatever you need to do.") 

Venom growls. They run at Riot. Inside, Eddie closes his eyes. 

Claws. Teeth. Pain, excruciating as they separate again, reaching out for Venom and rejoining. Getting closer to the rocket, close enough to puncture some part of it with claws, then pushed away again. When the next wave of feedback sounds, Eddie as himself strains towards the Riot symbiote with another jagged metal spear in hand, and part of Venom still in him pushes his arm, impaling part of the wriggling Riot-blob to the catwalk as Eddie lands another blow to Drake's smug face with his other hand. "Hurry up and fucking eat it, Vee," he gasps out.

The spear is lifted and thrown with force at Carlton Drake, striking him through the chest, sending him bleeding and staggering back towards the smoking rocket even as Eddie watches his own Venom-clawed hands grab the wounded, writhing Riot symbiote. 

A scream. Eddie closes his eyes for the next part, feels Venom take over, lets himself be pushed to the back of their shared mind so that he doesn't have to experience the slippery grossness of eating Riot. 

There's a loud rumble, then a boom. Something bright starts to flare. Feedback again through the PA system, then Anne's voice yelling, "The rocket is unstable - get out of there - Eddie -"

An even louder boom, and a crushing wave of heat. Eddie registers that he's falling, as himself and not joined with Venom, falling even as he reaches upward in an attempt to stay with his symbiote. He might be shouting; there's a terrible scratching in his throat. The wind is whistling in his ears. 

There's a crashing wave of pain as he hits the water, and everything goes dark.

*

Eddie wakes up and sees stark white, and wonders for a split second if he's dead and this is some sort of afterlife waiting room. Then he hears the beep of the monitors and registers he's in a hospital bed. There's an IV in his wrist.

"Vee?" he whispers, suddenly terrified he won't hear a reply. Pain grips tight at his chest for a split second. 

_We… are here…_

Eddie feels like he's melting with the relief that floods through him; he closes his eyes against the dizzy feeling of it. "You okay, babe?"

_Hurt… healing._

A shadow moves over him and Eddie snaps his eyes open, sucking in a sharp breath, fearing it's Carlton Drake back from the dead. "Whoa, hey," a voice says, and Eddie registers that it's Dan, and Dan's raising his hands in clear reassurance. "Just me. You're safe now, Eddie."

"Are we in the hospital?"

"Yes, you're in the hospital." Cool fingers rest on Eddie's wrist for a moment. "You're a little banged up, and we're giving you some fluids."

With some effort, Eddie manages to focus on Dan's face. "You and Annie, you - you came to help us -"

"We tried," Dan says. "I'm not sure if we really had anything to do with the outcome, but at least I could get you guys the medical attention you needed before we got here. And I took care of you myself," he adds. "No one else knows about your friend, okay? But I do have about a million questions, when you guys are up for answering."

"Uh," is all Eddie manages. 

"The IV is mostly saline, but your buddy said he needed phenethylamine, so there's some of that in there." Dan makes a face that's sort of like a frown, but could be that he's thinking. "Or rather, he told me all the foods he knew were best for him, and I did some research from there. You know, you guys could just take a supplement or two, and not have to eat live fish brains. Or - any other brains."

Eddie puts his hand over his eyes at the mention of brains. _Vee?_ he presses.

_Still here... still tired._

"Okay, so you met Venom," he mumbles to Dan. "Do I even want to know how?"

"He, um... wrapped a tentacle around my wrist? And kind of dumped a lot of stuff straight into my brain, apparently. I guess it was the easiest way to tell me what I needed to know. Then when I did an ultrasound, I found him."

The wooziness is fading and it's getting easier to focus, so Eddie figures he can attempt to sit up a little bit more. Dan's standing next to the bed in his white doctor's coat, a stethoscope around his neck. He readjusts the pillow behind Eddie's back as Eddie says, "They don't really have a gender, being an alien and all. Where were they, in me?"

_Everywhere._

"Tucked around your kidneys and liver, at least when I did the scan."

"Huh." It takes him a few seconds to sort out his next words. "They got hurt. Saving me."

Dan nods. "I understood that, yeah. Look, Eddie - clearly they're a sentient being so as much as I don't understand it, I'm going to choose not to worry about it, and just let you guys... do your thing." 

"Great, when can I get out of here?"

Now Dan shakes his head. "Tomorrow at the earliest. You're not too banged up, but you're definitely still exhausted. And I think your friend needs more rest as well, and the IV is a more direct delivery system than eating. So just watch some Price is Right and eat a bunch of jello - it's got phenethylamine in it, too."

Eddie doesn't want to like this guy, shouldn't like this guy since he's Anne's new boyfriend and by societal standards Eddie is supposed to hate him by default, but he's touched, honestly, that Dan would not only keep their secret but want to help out Venom. "Thanks, Doc," he says. "I mean it. And Vee would say thanks too, if they were awake."

_Liar!_

"They sleep?" Dan asks.

"Kind of. Not the same as humans do."

_Eddieeddieeddie... we want to eat Doctor Dan._

_No!_ Eddie thinks back, and feels a tiny wave of amusement. _You're not funny._

 _We are… very funny…_

Dan pats his arm. "I'll be back to check on you guys before my shift ends. Push the button if you need something."

 _Doctor Dan does not seem... scared of us,_ Venom says, once Dan's left, and Eddie's wondering how he scored a solo room, even if it is tiny. 

"Well, he's a doctor, so I'm sure he's used to seeing some weird shit. And stop trying to chat, Vee, and just rest and drink your phenyl-whatever cocktail." 

_You rest, too._

Closing his eyes and drifting off to the sounds of _The Price is Right_ sounds like a good idea to Eddie.


	14. Epilogue!!

_We have eggs, bananas, peanut butter, jam, bread, the cheesy crunch chips, one of the pouches of the spicy beans, and peanut em and ems,_ the goo announces. They pronounce the M&Ms very deliberately. _We took inventory while you were busy._

"Cool, you can be in charge of the shopping list from now on. What do you want for lunch?"

_Peanut butter on the bread with the em and ems,_ Venom shouts. _And hot chocolate!_

"You want to eat an M&Ms sandwich," Eddie says, disbelieving. "Actually - that sounds like something you'd pick."

_Please, Eddie?_ They wind silkily around his neck, then nuzzle his ear. 

Eddie lifts his shoulder to bring them closer to his mouth and gives them a kiss, then a little lick, because he likes the way it makes them shiver. They taste faintly of saltwater. "Half hot chocolate, half coffee. And then no more chocolate until tomorrow, seriously."

_Fine._ They stretch towards the cupboard with the peanut butter. 

Eddie hangs back a little, wanting to see how much the goo will do on their own. They get everything out onto the counter, including a plate from a different cupboard and a butter knife from the drawer, then open the peanut butter jar. Eddie watches them spread the nut butter carefully onto the bread, getting it right to the corners in a thick layer. 

They open the M&Ms packet with too much force and a few candies bounce away across the counter. Tendrils shoot out to catch them. They place the candies in careful rows along the peanut butter on one slice of bread, then settle the top slice down on top of them. Eddie steadfastly tries not to think about how much sugar is in this sandwich. He's eaten worse, for sure.

_There is a lot of the phenethylamine,_ Venom counters. _Dan told us what things are good. Peanut butter is good for us, Eddie._

Dan, clearly getting Eddie's number from Anne, texted him a list of things with PEA in them, as well as some other neurochemicals he thought Venom might need, the same day he released Eddie from the hospital. Venom read the list with growing interest and then insisted Eddie buy as many of them as possible on their next grocery run. It's why there's a shelf-stable packet of Indian-spiced lentils in the cupboard. 

"Still a crazy sandwich, babe."

_Make the coffee, Eddie._ The goo sticks a rogue M&M in their mouth, then another in Eddie's, and Eddie feels a little mushy inside without how much he likes them. He gives them another kiss before turning his attention to the Mr. Coffee on the countertop. 

Venom feels satiated and very pleased after they and Eddie share the sandwich, and they lick the mug clean after Eddie finishes drinking their low-budget mocha. Then they nudge him into lying down on the couch, and manifest as a large blob on his chest. They tuck their head up under his chin, facing upwards. _We would eat that sandwich again._

Eddie strokes his hands over the mass of them. "Okay, yeah, me too," he laughs, squeezing his fingers into the goo. "But maybe not every day."

He sees their tongue working, like they've got peanut butter stuck in their teeth. They catch him looking. _Are you okay, Eddie?_

"I'm fine, babe." They always want to check in now, after the fight with Riot. "You good?"

_Mmm, we feel nice._ The goo stretches contentedly against him, then licks at his fingers. 

"You know we still need to go check out that winery," Eddie mumbles, somehow drowsy now despite all the sugar and caffeine. "You up for another road trip?"

_Yesssss, we liked the last one._

"Cool." He squeezes the tendrils that wind around his hands, then puts both his arms around them, feeling their happiness. "The magazine is covering the hotel this time, so hopefully less mold in the bathrooms."

Venom floods amusement across their bond. _And this time we do not have to ride in a jar!_


End file.
